WHAT IS TRUTH?

The Lenten season is upon us: Holy Week begins March 28^th (Palm Sunday), which includes Good Friday, and followed by Easter Sunday which commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But it is Good Friday which has always been an important day to me because of its stark reminder of the reality of the Passion of Jesus Christ. I recall from my youth, when my brother and sister and I, at our father’s direction, would pause on this day between noon and three o’clock and read aloud from our Catholic Bible History book and quietly reflect upon those solemn events.

In the years since, I have studied these events in more detail. I am intrigued at the number of trials that Jesus had to endure, especially the one with the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate. Jesus having been brought before Pilate was charged with proclaiming to be the Christ and a king (Luke 23:2). His accusers intentions were to characterize Jesus as a threat against Rome.

In the Gospel of John chapter 18, we observe Pilate questioning Jesus concerning this charge against Him. In verse 33, Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” While Jesus avoided answering yes or no, He assured Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world. Pilate answered as if annoyed, “So you are a King?” Jesus replied, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” In apparent frustration, Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Nevertheless, even though he found no guilt in Jesus but because of political expediency, Pilate sent Him to be scourged and crucified.

This question of Pilate’s has reverberated throughout the ages: What is truth? Theologians have suggested various ideas of what Pilate meant by his question, although the context shows that Pilate was certainly perplexed by the situation that confronted him. As he saw it, there was the truth of Jesus’ testimony, the ‘truth’ statement of His accusers, and there was also that which he thought to be ‘truth’ - that none of this mattered to him outside of how this unpleasant incident could effect his political standing with Rome. And while Jesus spoke the truth to him, Pilate was confused and would not believe what he heard from Jesus.

So, what is truth? Even today it is very difficult to separate fact from fiction. We have trouble differentiating what is truth within every segment of society: in the workplace, our government, the media, entertainment, and even within the Church. How are we to know what is truth? Are we even able to know what is truth?  Happily we can. For there is a standard which God has provided man – His Word – to enable him to determine fact from fiction and therefore to discern what is truth.

John wrote with reference to Jesus Christ in the opening verses of his Gospel account: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1&14). Standing before Pilate was the embodiment of truth in the person of the Son of God. Jesus himself testified to this fact in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” And He declared as He prayed to the Father: “Your word is truth” (John 17:17).  Pilate literally had a close encounter with the “Truth” and turned instead to his own wisdom.

The rejection of the truth of God, revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ, and explained by His written Word, is what we see in our own culture. His truth is meant to give meaning and purpose for all mankind, and to answer the questions that men have concerning God’s creation. We Christians should endeavor to make known His truth, not by providing a close encounter, but by permeating His truth into every area of our present culture. We should aspire to ensure that no one ever asks: “What is truth?”

ST. PATRICK

On March 17^th, 465 A.D., St. Patrick died and left a mark on Irish history as well as on Christianity. The day is celebrated by many in different ways and for different reasons. There are parades and festivals and there are those who hoist their favorite brew with songs and poems commemorating Ireland and this great man of God.

Patrick was born about 387 A.D., in Kilpatrick near Dumbarton in  Scotland, the son of a clergyman. When he was about sixteen years old, pirates abducted him to Ireland, enslaving him as a herder of their flocks. During his enslavement, the teachings from his youth of Christ were reawakened. He escaped six years later to France or Britain. It is at this point in his life that he declares that he had a calling in a dream. A man named Victoricius begged him to come to Ireland and help them. He then went to Ireland and spent the rest of his life devoted to the conversion of the Irish peoples.

There are many legends which surround the work of St. Patrick in Ireland. And with all legends there are elements of truth contained. He is said to have driven all the snakes from Ireland by ringing his bell from the top of Croagh Patrick, a 2500 feet tall mountain near Westport. However, there is no evidence of snakes in Ireland prior to the Ice Age which separated the island from the mainland. And yet the truth of the matter may be that the druids who were converted to Christianity used the symbol of a serpent in their cultic worship.

A more believable legend is that St. Patrick used the three-leaf clover (shamrock) to teach the very difficult truth of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as the Triune God. He was apparently very successful for the pagan leaders were converted as well as their subjects, and thousands were baptized into Christianity.

An interesting side note: Philip Schaff in his “History of the Christian Church” Vol. 4, writes that “In his [Patrick] Confession he never mentions Rome or the Pope; he never appeals to tradition, and seems to recognize the Scriptures (including the Apocrypha) as the only authority in matters of faith.”

How many Christians today believe as St. Patrick did, that the Scriptures are the only authority in their lives? This truth comes to us from within the writings of the Apostle Paul who wrote that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). 400 years after Paul wrote this, St. Patrick took this established doctrine to a land and a people that had enslaved him in his youth and revolutionized their thinking from paganism to a faith in the One true God of the Scriptures.

The profound lesson we learn from St. Patrick is that he believed in the sufficiency of God’s Word to direct his life, to the extent that he became faithful in spreading the Gospel of Christ to a pagan people, convincing them to turn from idols and to serve a living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Are we challenged today to do likewise? We should be. For we live in a culture that is slowly reverting from its original Christian heritage. The idols may be different from St. Patrick’s time, yet the Gospel message remains the same, that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). It has been given to us who believe to communicate this message to our culture by word and by our manner of living.

Is Jesus Christ Cited In History Outside Of The Bible?

The famous testimony of the Jewish historian Josephus (d. after a.d. 103) deserves special consideration. In his Antiquities of the Jews, 1. Xviii. Ch. 3, § 3, he gives the following striking summary of the life of Jesus.

Josephus: Now there rose about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works (παραδόξων ἔργων ποιητής), a teacher of such men as receive the truth with gladness. He carried away with him many of the Jews and also many of the Greeks. He was the Christ (ὁ Χριστὸς οὑ̂τος ἠ̂ν). And after Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, his first adherents did not forsake him. For he appeared to them alive again the third day (ἐφάνη γὰρ αὐτοι̂ς τρίτην ἔχων ἡμέραν πάλιν ζω̂ν); the divine prophets having foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things (ἄλλα μυρία θαυμάσια) concerning him. And the tribe of those called Christians, after him, is not extinct to this day." ^[2]

Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus [Antiquities of the Jews, 1. XX. Ch. 9, § 1: τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰησου̂ του̂ λεγομένου Χριστου̂, Ἰ̓άκαβος ὄνομα αὐτῳ̂^[3]], who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.^[4]

Tacitus (commenting on the persecutions conducted by Nero): "But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration. Hence, to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome..." [5] 

Suetonius: "Punishment [by Nero] was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition."[6] 

Pliny: "They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a trust when they should be called on to deliver it up…”[7]

Lucian: "...the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world...Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers one of another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws.”[8]

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[1] A compilation from Schaff’s History of the Christian Church and the following website → http://www.bible-history.com/quotes/josephus_and_others_1.html

[2] Schaff, Philip, (2006)  History of the Christian Church, Peabody: Hendrickson, 1.92

[3] Ibid., 1.92

[4] Josephus, F., & Whiston, W., (1996, c1987) The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, Peabody: Hendrickson, p. 538

[5] Tacitus, "Annals" xv, 44. The Oxford Translation, Revised. (New York Harper & Bros., Publishers, 1858), p. 423. 

[6] Suetonius, "The Lives of the Caesars," Nero xvi. Loeb Classical Library English translation by J. C. Rolfe. (London: William Heinemann; New York G. P. Putnam's Sons), Vol. II, p. 111. 

[7] Pliny, "Letters" X, xcvi. Loeb Classical Library. English translation by William Melmoth, revised by W. M. L. Hutchinson. (London: William Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935), Vol. II, p. 103 

[8] Lucian, "The Passing of Peregrinus" 12, 13. Loeb Classical Library. English translation by A. M. Harmon (London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936), pp. 13, 15.