The term “Good” has it’s origin in the name “God”. Philo, a Jewish philosopher from the first century said that “God alone is good”, emphasizing the unique quality that only God has.1 The early Anglo-Saxon’s derived their word “God” from the term “good”, believing that all true goodness had God as it’s source.2
The idea from the beginning of human language has been that God is the source of all goodness and virtue.
By Jesus response to the young man who asks him this question: “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”, we may miss the subtlety of his answer in the english translation. When Jesus asks the young man why he is calling him “good”, it is due to the fact that all men during this time, also ascribed the term “good” only to God, from where the name “God” originated from. The New Testament was originally written in Greek. Any person who would read this verse would know for certain that Matthew was ascribing Jesus goodness to his belief that he is God, from where all goodness originates.
When we compare Matthew’s record of this event with what Mark wrote, we see a difference the helps us understand what is being stated here.
Matthew writes that the young ruler said: “Good teacher, what good thing shall I do…”
Luke writes: “Good teacher what shall I do…”