What Does Matthew 19:17 Mean?
And he said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, God. But if you wish to enter into life, guard the commandments.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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.
“No one is good but one, God” in this verse is agathos. 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.
“guard the commandments” in this verse is tēreō. 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 you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to guard his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you come in to possess.Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shifting and no shadow cast by turning.For this is the love of God, that we guard his commands; and his commands are not heavy.THE THREAD
Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shifting and no shadow cast by 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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