What Does Matthew 19:17 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word “good” turns from a compliment into a question of source: goodness belongs to God, and life takes shape in keeping what God commands.
THE MEANING
When you call someone good, the word reaches beyond praise to God, the source of goodness. The verse places entry into life alongside keeping God’s commandments: life is a path shaped by attention to what God says.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that goodness is whatever a person chooses to call good: it locates goodness in God and ties entry into life to God’s commandments.
THE ROOT
ἀγαθός
agathos
GROWS FROM
ἀγαθ-
agath-
Good, beneficial, or fitting for the good.
The agath- word family names both the quality of goodness and what is good. Here Jesus turns “good” from a flattering label toward God as its source.
ALSO GROWS
agathōsynē: Goodness
ἀγαθωσύνη
The same word family names goodness as a quality, showing that “good” describes more than a casual compliment.
agathon: What is good; a good thing
ἀγαθόν
This form names what is good itself, echoing the verse’s question of where goodness comes from.
τηρέω
tēreō
GROWS FROM
τηρ-
tēr-
To guard, keep watch over, or observe.
English “keep” can sound like holding something or ticking a box; tēreō carries the sense of guarding and watching over. The verse joins entry into life with attentive observance of God’s commandments.
ALSO GROWS
syntēreō: Preserve or keep intact
συντηρέω
This related form brings out the care involved in keeping something from being lost.
paratēreō: Watch closely
παρατηρέω
This branch makes the attentive, watchful shade of tēreō more visible.
ζωή
zōē
GROWS FROM
ζῶ
zō
To live, to be alive.
The word translated “life” belongs to the same family as the verb “to live,” so life here is a lived reality, not merely something possessed. The verse links entering that reality with keeping God’s commandments.
ALSO GROWS
zaō: To live; be alive
ζάω
This verb makes the living action behind zōē explicit.
zōopoieō: Make alive; give life
ζωοποιέω
This compound carries the same living root into the act of making alive.
THE PATTERN
Life and goodness have their source in God and take form in keeping God’s instruction.
In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.THE THREAD
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.Matthew’s “good” and James’s “good” come from the same Greek word family, agath-. James makes explicit the source Jesus points toward: goodness comes from God.
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