Bible Strands
Mark 10:20
“Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The rich young man speaks to Jesus immediately after Jesus lists the commandments prohibiting murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and cheating, while commanding honor to parents. He makes this declaration while standing before Jesus, moments before Jesus identifies the one thing he lacks.
The words — ἀποκριθεὶς (apokritheis) means "answering," and ταῦτα πάντα (tauta panta) translates to "all these." The text records the man’s literal reply that he has observed every previously listed commandment since his youth.
The thread — The text describes external compliance paired with internal resistance in Ezekiel 33:31, where people sit to hear words but refuse to practice them, and in 2 Timothy 3:5, which describes those who maintain a form of godliness while denying its power.
Why it lands — The verse states a claim of complete moral observance before Jesus reveals the hidden barrier to obedience. It asks a reader to identify what they are preserving in place of total surrender.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 33:31 So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.
- 2 Timothy 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!
- Philippians 3:6 as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.
- Matthew 19:20 “All these I have kept,” said the young man. “What do I still lack?”
- Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
- Romans 7:9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
- Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings.
- Luke 10:29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
- Isaiah 58:2 For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”
- Ezekiel 5:14 I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.