It's no secret that "good," in English as well as in Hebrew, is rather polysemous: on the one hand, it can mark the degree to which a given thing satisfies its purpose or relevant ideal (as in a "good table," "good car," etc: in each case, the specifications of "good" are relative to the noun that follows it); on the other, it can identify moral righteousness — good in the unqualified, ethical sense.
As such, I'm wondering about the history of the interpretation of the word "good" ("tov") as it appears in Creation, specifically in Genesis 1. My question isn't what the word means, but rather when and how Jewish readers attempted to establish its meaning, using either the exegetical tools of midrash or those of philosophy. That is: when and where, exactly, do we see an attempt to define the Creational "tov" in biblical commentary?
Unsurprisingly, I've found relevant passages in Midrash Lekach Tov, but I'm wondering if this is really the starting point for my search. Is there anything earlier, or indeed, anything else at all? It would seem to be a question with major conceptual stakes, at least for the modern reader...
