What is truth?

“What is truth?” (Jn. 18:38). This is the question that Pilate the Roman Governor of Judea cynically and sarcastically asked Jesus during his trial at Pilate’s Court some 2000 years ago. Jesus had responded to a question put to him by Pilate by saying: “I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone […]

“What is truth?” (Jn. 18:38). This is the question that Pilate the Roman Governor of Judea cynically and sarcastically asked Jesus during his trial at Pilate’s Court some 2000 years ago. Jesus had responded to a question put to him by Pilate by saying: “I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (Jn. 18:37). It was in response to this answer that Pilate asked Jesus what truth is. Interestingly, Jesus did not offer any reply to Pilate’s cynical question, which with the benefit of hindsight has become one of the most profound and eternally significant questions in the Bible ever posed by a pagan Roman political figure. Since then, humanity has been left to wander endlessly along the path of radically different streams of philosophical attempts to grasp the full meaning of truth. Countless volumes have been written on the meaning and nature of truth, yet humanity is still unable to put an end to Pilate’s eternal question. The whole world continues to breath Pilate’s cynicism. Some say truth is a power play, a metanarrative constructed by the elite for the purpose of controlling the ignorant masses. To some, truth is subjective to the individual world of preference and opinion. Truth is what you say it is, how you see it. Others believe truth is a collective judgment, the product of cultural consensus. Others still flatly deny the concept of truth altogether or the possibility of attaining truth. To ask anyone today, “What is truth?” would be to start an interestingly endless conversation.

Perhaps, it should have been obvious to Pilate that truth was standing before him, the truth he knew about the fact that Jesus had done nothing but had been unjustly brought forward for condemnation by a horde of Jewish leaders of religion who, afraid of being put out of business, mobilised an angry mob to press for the innocent man’s trial and condemnation under the false accusation of blasphemy. “Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor” (Mt. 27:1-2). When Pilate dismissed the charges brought against Jesus and seemed determined to let him go, the Jews pressed all the more for his conviction: “We have a law, and according to that law he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God” (Jn. 19:7). The matrix of this unjust condemnation is that it sealed to avert a political uprising. The Jewish leaders were determined to foment trouble and create mayhem in Jerusalem, one that would put Pilate’s job at risk and earn him the ire of the Roman Emperor Caesar. It was thus out of political expediency that Pilate condemned Jesus to death. “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility!’” (Mt. 27:24). Thus he absolved himself of blame.

If this truth was Jesus was innocent was not enough to persuade Pilate, it should have been obvious to him that his question was redundant in the face of Jesus. He was asking about truth from the Truth. During his public ministry, Jesus had said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). As such, the Truth was standing before Pilate when he uttered that cynical question. He did not need to ask. He only needed to apprehend it and to contemplate it. This is where Christians of all ages have pitched their tent in reply to Pilate’s question. Jesus came to show us the way to the Father, to teach us the truth about God and to give us abundant life. He taught this truth about God by pointing to himself not just as the messenger of truth but also as Truth Himself. When Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and we shall be satisfied” (Jn. 14:8), Jesus replied: “Have I been with you for so long and you still do not know me? To have seen me is to have seen the Father… Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (Jn. 14:9-10).

So what is truth? Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory and being of God. Even more to the point, truth is the self-expression of God. Because this definition of truth flows from God, truth has a theological character. The Old Testament refers to the Almighty as the “God of truth” (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 31:5; Is. 65:16). When Jesus said of himself, “I am the Truth” (Jn. 14:6), he was making a profound claim about his own divinity, but also about his own equal dignity in the Godhead. After all, he is the brightness of God’s glory and the perfect copy of his image (Heb. 1:3). Jesus is the truth incarnate; he is the perfect embodiment of God and the expression of all that is true. Jesus also taught that the written word of God is truth. It does not merely contain principles of truth, but is truth itself, which “cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35). In his high priestly prayer, Jesus implored the Father to consecrate his disciples in the truth: “Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth” (Jn. 17:17). Moreover, the word of God is eternal truth “which lives forever” (1 Pt. 1:23). 

There can be no discord between the written Word of God and the incarnate Word of God, because truth cannot contradict itself. Truth is both the message and the self-expression of Jesus. As such, truth cannot be adequately explained, recognised, understood or defined without reference to its source – God, the Author of Truth. Even when Jesus promised to send “the Spirit of truth” (Jn. 14:17) to his disciples, he did not say that the Spirit would bring new truths. On the contrary, he will bring enlightenment, helping the disciples to understand clearly and to clarify what they have already been taught by the Truth Himself: “But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (Jn. 14:26). The post-Pentecost events in the life of the Apostles and of the early Church bear the truth of this enlightenment. As such, Jesus remains the unchanging reference point for appropriating divine epistemology. He is the Fountain of Truth.

When a society denies and tries to supress the essential connection between God and truth, it turns itself over to become a plaything in the hands of dangerous evil forces. The permissiveness we find in our society today is the result of this fundamental disjunction. When this happens, even knowledge becomes dangerous and poisonous, as are the ghastly ideologies of the last century that systematically decimated human lives in the name of progress. This is obvious in the fundamental moral distortions that are also taking place today between good and evil, right and wrong. Elaborate epistemologies have been proposed and methodically debunked one after another – like a long chain in which every previous link is broken. After thousands of years, the very best of human philosophers, from Plato, Socrates to Descartes, Hegel, Locke Kant, Nietzsche, and Marx have all utterly failed to account for truth and the origin of human knowledge apart from God. What is clear today is the valuable lesson from the past that it is impossible to make sense of truth without acknowledging God as the necessary starting point. This has fundamental implications for social, political and cultural life. The statement of Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, cited by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his 1995 book, The Nature and Mission of Theology deserves to be repeated here: “I maintain that in the long run only a truth-oriented society, not a happiness-oriented society, can succeed.”

Ojeifo is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja.