ACC ~ Mark 10 v18b
THE INCOMPARABLE GOODNESS OF THE SON
ORIGEN: There is no other secondary goodness existing in the Son than that which is in the Father. So the Savior himself rightly says in the Gospel that “none is good save one, God the Father.” [1] The purpose of this statement is to make it understood that the Son is not of some other ancillary “goodness,” but of that alone which is in the Father; whose image he is rightly called. For he neither springs from any other source than from original goodness itself (if that were so, there would seem to be a different goodness in the Son from that which is in the Father), nor has the goodness that is in him any dissimilarity or divergence from that of the Father. [2] Accordingly we ought not to imagine that there is some kind of blasphemy in the saying that “none is good save one, God the Father.” [3] These words are not to be taken as a denial that either Christ or the Holy Spirit is good. But, as we said before, the original goodness must be believed to reside in God the Father, and from him both the Son and Holy Spirit undoubtedly draw into themselves the nature of that goodness existing in the font from which the one is born and the other proceeds. [4] If then there are any other things called good in the Scriptures such as an angel, [5] or a man, [6] or a servant, [7] or a treasure, [8] or a good heart, [9] or a good tree, [10] all these are so called by an inexact use of the word, since the goodness contained in them is accidental and not essential. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.13. [11]
[1] Mk 10:18; Lk 18:19.
[2] Cf. Jn 10:30.
[3] Mk 10:18; Lk 19:19.
[4] Cf. Jn 3:16; 15:16.
[5] Cf. Tob 5:21; 2 Macc 11:6; 15:23.
[6] Cf. Ps 37:23; 112:5; Prov 12:2; Mt 12:35; Acts 11:24.
[7] Cf. Sir 7:21; Lk 19:17.
[8] Cf. Tob 4:9; Lk 6:45.
[9] Cf. Jdt 8:28; Wis 1:1; Sir 26:4; Lk 8:15.
[10] Cf. 2 Kings 3:19; Mt 7:17-19; Lk 6:43.
[11] OBP 154-57; OFP 27-28**.
DEFINING THE GOOD
ORIGEN: The good, then, is the same as the one who incomparably is. Over against good is evil or wickedness. Over against the one who incomparably is, is merely that which is not. So it follows that evil and corruption are, finally, that which becomes nothing. [1] This, perhaps, is what has led some to affirm that the devil is not created by God. [2] In respect that he is the devil he is not the work of God, but he who is the devil is a created being, and as a creature nonetheless remains a work of God, since there is nothing created that is not created by God. Think of it this way: A murderer is not a work of God insofar as he murders, while we may still say that insofar as he is a human being, God made him. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2.7. [3]
[1] In the sense that their evil depends upon something good and is a deprivation of that good.
[2] Cf. Eph 3:9.
[3] ANF 9:330*, TLG 2042.005, 2.13.96.3-97.7. To view the greatest good, God incarnate, only by the measurements of creaturely goods is to miss the good. The wickedness of the devil must not be linked to his creatureliness as such but to his will to do evil.
COMPLETE GOODNESS BELONGS TO GOD ALONE
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: The words, “None is good” [1] are a reply to the young ruler who was testing him and had borne witness to his goodness as a human being. Consummate goodness, he meant, belongs to God alone, though the word “good” can be derivatively applied to human beings. [2] ORATION 30, ON THE SON 13. [3]
[1] Mk 10:18; Lk 18:19.
[2] Cf. Ps 37:23; 112:5; Prov 31:10-31; Acts 11:24.
[3] TLG 2022.010, 13.15-18; FGFR 271*. Good can be derivatively applied to human beings only by primarily being applied to God.
GOD’S GOODNESS DISTINGUISHED FROM OTHER GOODS
AUGUSTINE: God, therefore, is uniquely good, and this he cannot lose. He is good. He is not good by sharing in any other good, because the good by which he is good is himself. But, when a finite human being is good, his goodness derives from God, because he cannot be his own good. All who become good do so through his Spirit. Our nature has been created to attain to him through acts of its own will. If we are to become good, it is important for us to receive and hold what he gives, who is good in himself. LETTER 153, TO MACEDONIUS. [1]
[1] Cetedoc 0262, 153.44.5.409.6; FC 20:289*. God is good in a way that cannot be diminished or lost, while human willing participates proximately in God’s goodness through divine grace.
NO PART IS WHOLLY GOOD
PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS: It is the entire divine reality which is adored in Scripture, as that absolute goodness defines and reveals itself to be. [1] How else are we to understand the sacred Word of God when it declares that the deity, speaking of itself, had this to say: “Why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good but God alone.” [2] I have discussed all this elsewhere, how in Scripture all the names appropriate to God are praised regarding the whole, entire, full, and complete divinity rather than any aspect of it. They all refer indivisibly, absolutely, unreservedly and totally to God in his entirety. THE DIVINE NAMES 2.1. [3]
[1] The issue is whether the term good is applied to God according to the wholeness of divine goodness or some particular aspect of it.
[2] Mk 10:18; Lk 18:19.
[3] TLG 2798.004, 122.1-10; CWS 58*. The wholeness of God’s goodness cannot be ascribed directly to some partial good in creation.
GOOD BY PARTICIPATION
BEDE: It is only by participation in the divine goodness that a rational creature is capable of becoming good. [1] EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL OF MARK 11.4. [2]
[1] Cf. Phil 2:13; Heb 13:20-21.
[2] Cetedoc 1367, 2.14.233; HOG 2:132. Humans are good by participation in the eternal goodness of God.
Mk