[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Mt 19:17


One of the ways in which Mt's telling of the story about the rich young
man differs from the parallels is that the man asks Jesus: DIDASKALE, TI
AGAQON POIHSW... in Mt instead of DIDASKALE AGAQON, TI POIHSW... as in Mk
and Lk. Jesus' answer in Mt is accordingly different: TI ME HERWTAiS PERI
TOU AGAQOU; HEIS ESTIN HO AGAQOS. It is this last clause that I am
interested in. All of the English translations I have looked at render
this along the lines of: "There is One who is good."  The obvious
translation, both grammatically and from the context, would seem to be: 
"The good is one." (Lamar Cope in _Matthew: A Scribe Trained for the
Kingdom_ is the only published translation I have seen that does this.)
The man asks what good he must do have eternal life. Jesus' answer is,
"Why do you need to ask? There _is_ only one good. If you want eternal
life, keep the commandments" (loose paraphrase). The point of Jesus'
response in Matthew seems to be that Torah is good, and the only good
thing to do, in this context, is to keep Torah. My question is this: are
there GRAMMATICAL grounds for translating the clause in question as the
English translations all do ("there is One who is good")? 

Philip Graber
Emory University
Follow-Ups: