Tool Alpha
The Contradiction Desk
Claimed Bible contradictions, stated the way they circulate, each with one diagnosis and the evidence for it: the Hebrew, the Greek, the manuscripts.
Why callest thou me good?
In Mark, Jesus asks why he is called good. In the critical text of Matthew he asks why he is asked about what is good. The King James reads Matthew the way Mark reads.
Matthew 19:17, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: did Matthew change what Jesus said? Two reporters write up one press conference and quote the question differently. Did one get it wrong, or did each keep what mattered to his readers?
Mark 10:18 has Jesus answer Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. In most modern versions Matthew 19:17 has him answer Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. Two Gospels report one conversation with different words from Jesus. A second claim rides on the first: in Mark, Jesus seems to deny that he is good.
Bible Hub's page of Greek texts shows the SBL Greek New Testament, Nestle 1904, Westcott and Hort and Tischendorf reading Ti me erotas peri tou agathou, why do you ask me about the good, and heis estin ho agathos, one is good. The Textus Receptus editions, the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine text and the Greek Orthodox Church text read Ti me legeis agathon, why do you call me good, and oudeis agathos ei me heis ho theos, none is good but one, God. The CSB's textual notes record both alternatives. Jeremiah Coogan, in Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, lists harmonizing parallel Gospel passages among the ordinary mishaps of copying. That the King James wording of Matthew arose by assimilation to Mark is an inference drawn here from the match; none of the sources read says so of this verse.
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 Skeptic's Annotated Bible asks "Is Jesus good?" and sets Jesus calling himself the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14) against his question why he is called good, in Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19, quoted in the King James wording. At full strength: on any text of Mark, Jesus refuses the word good for himself, and Matthew's critical text looks like an edit to soften that.
The ESV Study Bible says Jesus takes the young man's perspective: no one is completely good except God, so the man should not call Jesus good teacher until he is ready to acknowledge that Jesus is God. It calls the three accounts supplementary rather than contradictory. MacArthur says Jesus did not deny his deity but affirmed it. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes that teachers who deflected praise were respected.
The variant explains why King James readers see the same words in both Gospels. If the shorter text of Matthew is original, the Gospels do report the exchange differently, and the harmonizing case has to account for that, as the ESV Study Bible does by calling the accounts supplementary. The second claim, whether Jesus disowns being good, is a question of reading Mark and is untouched by the variant.
Not a claim that scribes made Matthew say something new. If anything, the King James reading is the one that matches Mark.
- Bible Hub, Matthew 19:17 Greek texts, https://biblehub.com/texts/matthew/19-17.htm
- CSB Study Bible, textual notes on Matthew 19:17
- ESV Study Bible, notes on Mark 10:17-27 and 10:18
- The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), notes on Matthew 19:17 and Mark 10:18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Mark 10:18
- Jeremiah Coogan, Myths About Early Translations, ch. 14 in Hixson and Gurry, eds., Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism (IVP Academic, 2019)
- The Skeptic's Annotated Bible, Is Jesus good?, https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/jesus-good.html
- King James Version, Matthew 19:17 and Mark 10:18
