good: the ordinary word for what is sound, worthwhile, and beneficial, whether a person, a thing, an action, or a gift
This is the everyday Greek word for good, and everyday is exactly the right word for it. It fills the ordinary letters, wills, and business documents of the period, and countless of them open with the stock wish "good fortune." It was never a specialized religious term. In much older Greek it did not even carry a moral sense: calling a man good meant he was capable and useful, a good fighter or a good ruler. By New Testament times the moral weight is normally there, but the older flavor of sound and useful never leaves it.
The New Testament puts the word to work in a few steady ways:
- a person who is upright, kind, and openhanded
- a thing that is sound and fit for what it is for, like good soil or a good tree
- the good that a person actually does, which is why "good works" became such a common phrase
- the good things someone owns or enjoys, where English would simply say "goods"
- the good that God gives and has promised, including the good still to come
Paul in particular keeps the word moving. Sometimes "the good" is plain moral conduct (Romans 12:21), sometimes it is the public welfare a governing authority is supposed to serve (Romans 13:4), and sometimes it is the whole outcome God is working toward for those who love him (Romans 8:28). Reading one of those into another is easy to do and usually wrong.
The most famous use pushes the word to its limit. A man greets Jesus as "good teacher," and Jesus asks why he uses the word at all, since no one is good except God alone (Mark 10:18). Most commentators take this as a challenge to a casual compliment rather than a denial that Jesus is good. The word that an ordinary servant or an ordinary tree can wear belongs in its full measure to God, whom Israel had long praised for the simple reason that he is good.
Nuances
Whether Paul is drawing a real distinction between the "righteous" person and the "good" person in Romans 5:7.
- contestedThe good person is the warmer figure, a benefactor whose kindness might actually move someone to die for him, unlike the merely righteous person who only measures up to the standard.; J. B. Lightfoot, as reported in A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, on Romans 5:7; J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. ἀγαθός
- contestedNo essential difference is intended; the contrast in the passage is between both figures together and the ungodly for whom Christ died.; H. A. W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Epistle to the Romans, on Romans 5:7
Disputed
Whether this word is sharply distinct from the other common Greek word for good, καλός.
- majorityIn Koine Greek the two words overlap heavily and are often interchangeable, so no sharp distinction can carry exegetical weight; Matthew 7:17 and 7:18 apply both to the same tree and its fruit, and Luke 8:15 stacks them on one heart.; M. Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDNTTE), s.v. ἀγαθός; J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domains 65 and 88; BDAG, s.v. ἀγαθός
- minorityἀγαθός names what is intrinsically and morally good, while καλός names the good as beautiful, fair, or attractive in appearance and use.; R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament (1854), s.v. ἀγαθός, καλός; J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἀγαθός