The Confusing Sayings: Mark 10:18

Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone.

This article is part of a series explaining Jesus’s Confusing Sayings.

If any of Jesus’s verse’s are confusing for you, let me know in a comment and I may analyze its Greek for you in a future article.

Why does Jesus object to being called “good?” Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem for his execution. A young, rich man ran up and fell on his knees before him. This young man addressed Jesus as “good teacher.” The man then asked what he personally could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answers the man in a series of difficult verses, starting with this one, the most confusing of them all. He then tells the young man to sell all his property and follow him (see this Mark 10:21 article). When the man cannot do this, Jesus said the line comparing the difficulties of the rich being saved to a camel passing through the eye of a needle (see this Mark 10:25 article).

However, before these two famous verses, Jesus begins this dialogue with this confusing line from Mark 10:18:

NIV Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone.

• The words in boldface are explained in this article.

In examining the commentaries on Mark, you will find that most of them skip this verse entirely. It is troublesome for a number of theological reasons. Jesus seems to object to being called “good”. He then points out that only God is good. This seems to draw a clear line between himself and God. Those few commentators that I have found who try to explain this, but they offer solutions that are too convoluted to explain here. They don’t understand that most of the problems here come from the key word, “good.”

If any of you know another explanation of this verse, please let me know and I will update this article.

What is Good?

The meaning of this verse is confused by the word translated as “good.” To us, it seems very strange that Jesus objected to being called “good.” It also seems strange that he separates himself so clearly from “God,” who is “good.”

The problem is that we don’t know what the Greek word translated as “good” actually means. There are two major Greek words that are consistently and confusingly translated as “good” in the New Testament. Both words describe different positive qualities. This earlier article explains these Greek words for “good” and their various shades of meaning.

The “good” in this verse has different meanings depending on what categories of objects it describes. When Jesus says “no one is good,” he uses a Greek word for “no one” in a form that clearly refers to people. Since this “good” is being applied to a person here, a teacher, it can mean "well-born", "gentle", "brave," and "capable."

Those listening to him would instantly understand which of these ideas applied here. They would never think that he was saying that “no teacher is well-born,” or that “no teacher is gentle,” or that “no teacher is brave,” even though all those ideas are entertaining. They would hear this line as meaning that “no teacher is capable.” The immediate context is that no person is capable of being a “good” teacher.

The Change as the End

This ending is one of Jesus’s typical setups followed by a punchline, but it is lost in translation. Listeners heard Jesus deny that he is a capable teacher. He then says that no one is capable. Listeners would still think he is talking about teachers, so, in his opinion, there are no capable teachers. This is strange, and they would expect him to explain.

Then, Jesus adds, “except one.” Now, Jesus is saying that there is one capable teacher. During the pause which followed, listeners expected to hear the name of a greater teacher than Jesus. This is completely lost in translation because the number “one” is changed to a different word entirely, “alone.” But his listeners are kept guessing about Jesus’s meaning until the end.

This “except one” sets up the surprise ending, the name of this teacher: “God” or, more precisely, “the Divine.” This is the unexpected punchline because they thought Jesus was talking about capable people. In referring to “the Divine,” Jesus changes the meaning from “capable of teaching,” to “capable of the impossible.” In a subtle but entertaining way, he is equating teaching this young man with doing the impossible.

At the time, his words would have been heard as:

Listeners Heard: Why call me capable? No one is capable except one—the Divine.

This line actually sets up another punchline at the end of this whole lesson. After Jesus describes the spiritual challenges of being rich, he said the famous line about the camel passing through the eye of a needle. The apostles despaired at this news, asking, “then, who can be saved?” At the time, those who had earthly wealth, followed the Law, and gave tithes to the Temple and the poor, were assumed to be those most favored by the Divine.

Jesus responds with the line from Mark 10:27:

NIV: With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.
Listeners Heard: For people [it is] impossible. Rather for a divine, all things, however, [are] possible for the Divine.

This returned this series of verses to the lesson to the line here. The Divine is capable of the impossible.

Divinity

Does this verse really say anything about Jesus’s divinity? That doesn’t seem to be the point that he is trying to make. Is he denying his divinity? Not at all. He never actually says that he is not capable. He just asked the young man why he called him capable. He doesn’t deny his capacities directly. The apparent rebuke says only the Divine was capable.

Although, Jesus said nothing about his own capabilities directly in this verse, Jesus was clearly not capable in this case of convincing the rich young man to sell his property and follow him. Though his words never denied his capabilities, the results of the encounter did.