I want to know what you mean when you say that "God is good". I'm sure what you mean is influenced by what they've written, and we have no reason to assume they'll be perfectly in line with one another of course, but surely you must mean something when you state that "God is good", don't you?
Alright. Fair question.
In my own personal axiological evaluation of the biblical God, the first thing that has ever crossed my mind, and one that is still the primary and foremost factor by which I approach this whole kind of question is my engagement with the literary figure of Jesus in the New Testament, and it is this that forms and informs my conceptual doorway, so to speak, to what I think is the goodness of God.
For the most part, it's the figure of Jesus that provides me a 'signifier' that God is "good," and I refuse to consider the concept of 'a God' separate from Jesus. I'm not going to assume the 'god of the pagan philosophers' will provide the necessary concepts by which I could even glean that God is "good." But I can read in the bible and hear from the Christian Churches that Jesus cared about people; and I think care is 'good.' He healed some people; and I think being beneficent and healing is 'good.' Jesus counseled people in relation to their social badness, and He forgave some people of their bad morals; and I think empathizing with people in their moral misdirections and sufferings is good. Jesus also is reported to have raised the dead, and if that's not an act of 'good,' then I don't know really know what is. Obviously, when Jesus did this, even literarily speaking, we're not talking some kind of childish, silly promotion of 'zombie-ism.'
I'm not playing games, honestly, I'm just probing for as satisfying of an answer as is possible. I understand we'll hit a brick wall at some point.
Ok. I believe you.
You've listed more qualities here like in the last post. Are you saying these qualities are good and God is good because he possesses those qualities?
Not exactly. I'm saying that God's definition of "the Good" will be some set of values that make up who He is, as aspects inherent within His Being; they're not higher or lower than He is in His Being; they're aspects of His Being. But again, this is according to Him. If He says he's "Holy," I personally don't have a real firm understanding about about what "that quality" is, exactly, apart from His telling me, or His Jewish mediators telling me. It's not something that I come by in my own personal experience growing up, nor was it a concept taught to me by my family. But when I read the Biblical narratives and listen to what the biblical writers have had to say, then I can pick up a few fragments of meaning as to what something like the quality of Holiness might be or could be.
Sure, I can make my own estimation about what moral qualities of God are supposed to be, but some of hese qualities, among other qualities, are such that I have no idea what they can mean in human terms. A quality non-moral quality like Eternality or Transcendence is beyond me, but I can try to understand it via more limited, analogical type axiological ideas. Same with God's moral qualities. And in this hermeneutical process, as I process my understanding in reflection of the biblical writings and engage the literary figure of Jesus Christ, I can muster up some idea as to what "I" mean by God's Goodness.