ABSTRACT
When a rich man greets him as ‘Good teacher’ Jesus refuses to be addressed as ‘good’ on the grounds that God alone is worthy of this description (Luke 18: 17-18). Their exchange underlines not only the ‘indescribability’ of the gift of Jesus discussed in the previous chapter. It also reflects the Jewishness of Jesus in claiming the quality of goodness for God alone (Funk 1993: 91). And as God by definition defies all description, divine goodness necessarily exceeds any human demonstration of it and goes beyond any criterion we might employ in attributing it to others.
