What is Truth?

[HabemusFrancis]

“What is Truth?” Pontius Pilate is reported to have mused to Jesus Christ, in reponse to His remark that he came into this world to “testify to the truth.”

What did Pilate mean by this remark and what did he hope to get by asking it? It almost seems like a question that belongs in the books of classical philosophy.

Could it be that Pilate might have been curious as to what “truth” really was and who had it? As I recall the discussion of “truth” was very prevalent in the schools of ancient philosophy. Perhaps Pilate had pondered this question for a while, and genuinely wondered if the mysterious stranger before him really knew what “it” really was.

This little story in the Gospel of John has helped shed light on who and what I believe Pilate actually was.

I get the sense of a harsh, hard-hearted unsympathetic man who also has a reasonable sense of justice and is not necessarily cruel or evil of heart.

He seemed to not have understood the “big deal” about Jesus at first, and likely thought little to nothing of Him on their first meeting. He probably saw a Jewish holy man who stepped on the wrong toes but who was no threat and commited no crime worthy of execution.

True, the scourging at the pillar and the crown of thorns were Pilate’s initiative, but was sort of some perverse way to save Jesus’ live. Perhaps he thought “if they behold the man in such a way, they will realize he is no threat and won’t demand his death.”

It seems that though Pilate didn’t really know who Jesus was, he definitly got a sense of it by the time he passed the death sentence. His wife begged for His life, and it for sure seems Jesus made some kind of impression on Pilate, made him realize He was “not from this world.”

I think he fully realized this right when the crowd demanded His death over Barrabas, Pilate then realized something was very different about Jesus. As I recall he demanded to know why He said nothing in hisown defense, why he chose not to recognize Pilate’s power to free or condemn Him. After getting a sort of mysterious response, Pilate then demanded to know just who and what Jesus was and why he came.

Did Pilate ever atone for his unjust execution of Jesus? Did he ever figure out what truth really was, and if it was embodied in Jesus Christ? I think it’s reasonable to hope so, but we don’t really know.

Whatever his heart and his eventual fate, Pilate as portrayed in the gospels seems like one of the more complicated and mysterious characters in the gospel. One of the few who are grey enough to be open to interpretation it seems.

 

[e_c]

He’s a relativist. He’s skeptical of the very idea of truth in some way.

 

[Lucretius]

Some people ask questions because they want to know the answer, while others ask questions in order to ignore the answer.

Pilate was of the second kind of people. Relativists in our culture do the same thing to justify sexual perversions and murder: they ask questions with the intention of demonstrating that we don’t know enough to make definitely calls about things, or we know something that somehow contradicts what is more evident. They are manipulating their intellects to justify their hearts.

Does that make sense?

Christi pax,

Lucretius

 

[HabemusFrancis]

Some people ask questions because they want to know the answer, while others ask questions in order to ignore the answer.

Pilate was of the second kind of people. Relativists in our culture do the same thing to justify sexual perversions and murder: they ask questions with the intention of demonstrating that we don’t know enough to make definitely calls about things, or we know something that somehow contradicts what is more evident. They are manipulating their intellects to justify their hearts.

Does that make sense?

Christi pax,

Lucretius

I definitly agree with the modern example of modern relativists. But did Pilate know enough really? He was not raised with the God of Abraham. The best he had to go off of for “Truth” was the less than virtuous example of the Olympian Gods, and the (somewhat) more morally coherent schools of classical philsophy.

Perhaps he himself did not know. Ancient Rome was hardly conducive to producing good decent people (see the Emperors) so I agree it was unlikely Pilate was one by our modern standards or even by any standard.

Yet he intrigues me all the same.

 

[Lucretius]

I definitly agree with the modern example of modern relativists. But did Pilate know enough really? He was not raised with the God of Abraham. The best he had to go off of for “Truth” was the less than virtuous example of the Olympian Gods, and the (somewhat) more morally coherent schools of classical philsophy.

Perhaps he himself did not know. Ancient Rome was hardly conducive to producing good decent people (see the Emperors) so I agree it was unlikely Pilate was one by our modern standards or even by any standard.

Yet he intrigues me all the same.

The Greeks and Romans also believed in one truth, so I can’t see Pilate being ignorant, especially since relativism is self-evidently wrong.

Christi pax,

Lucretius

 

[HabemusFrancis]

The Greeks and Romans also believed in one truth, so I can’t see Pilate being ignorant, especially since relativism is self-evidently wrong.

Christi pax,

Lucretius

Do you believe then that Pilate was a bad person, on equal par with Caiaphas/high priests and Judas Iscariot (to the extent even Judas is a villain- the jury seems out on this issue:blush

Mel Gibson seemed not to believe so personally… but then how much stock can be placed in Mel?

 

[Lucretius]

Do you believe then that Pilate was a bad person, on equal par with Caiaphas/high priests and Judas Iscariot (to the extent even Judas is a villain- the jury seems out on this issue:blush

Mel Gibson seemed not to believe so personally… but then how much stock can be placed in Mel?

I think Pilate was just doing his job as governed…in his heart he was rather apathetic, no, he was mildly sympathetic. He knew that Jesus was being falsely accused.

But, his small sympathies were overturned by the more powerful need to do what he was assigned to do: control the peace of of the province. He might have felt sympathy for the Nazarene, but he was also a politician, and so weighed the odds and found abandoning Christ to be executed was the most “reasonable.”

In the end, I think of Pilate as a “lukewarm,” or a “moderate religious,” a “cafeteria Catholic,” the kind of person Wilde called “respectable.” Justice is important to him only if it doesn’t cause too much of a problem for him, just as for many Christians, Jesus is important, but only if he doesn’t cause too much of a problem.

In our current society, the Jesus of “tolerance,” and of works of mercy is praised, but the Jesus of temperance and poverty, and true tolerance of the heart is hated. Jesus is good only if He works in our own favor, when He is against us He is dismissed. Many of us might follow some of Jesus’s teachings, but not because He teaches them.

Remember, hell is paved with the stones of good intentions. God can’t be compartmentalized; He isn’t just the God of that (boring ) one hour on Sunday.

Christi pax,

Lucretius

 

[o_mlly]

Do you believe then that Pilate was a bad person, on equal par with Caiaphas/high priests and Judas Iscariot (to the extent even Judas is a villain- the jury seems out on this issue:blush

Mel Gibson seemed not to believe so personally… but then how much stock can be placed in Mel?

The Ethiopian Church venerates both Pilate and his wife on June 19. Early Church Fathers also go easy on the Roman. See "Saint Pontius Pilate? " commonwealmagazine.org/blog/saint-pontius-pilate

However, growing up I never had any friends named Pontius or Adolf.

 

[HabemusFrancis]

I think Pilate was just doing his job as governed…in his heart he was rather apathetic, no, he was mildly sympathetic. He knew that Jesus was being falsely accused.

But, his small sympathies were overturned by the more powerful need to do what he was assigned to do: control the peace of of the province. He might have felt sympathy for the Nazarene, but he was also a politician, and so weighed the odds and found abandoning Christ to be executed was the most “reasonable.”

In the end, I think of Pilate as a “lukewarm,” or a “moderate religious,” a “cafeteria Catholic,” the kind of person Wilde called “respectable.” Justice is important to him only if it doesn’t cause too much of a problem for him, just as for many Christians, Jesus is important, but only if he doesn’t cause too much of a problem.

In our current society, the Jesus of “tolerance,” and of works of mercy is praised, but the Jesus of temperance and poverty, and true tolerance of the heart is hated. Jesus is good only if He works in our own favor, when He is against us He is dismissed. Many of us might follow some of Jesus’s teachings, but not because He teaches them.

Remember, hell is paved with the stones of good intentions. God can’t be compartmentalized; He isn’t just the God of that (boring ) one hour on Sunday.

Christi pax,

Lucretius

You think Pilate as a “lukewarm religious?” I thought he was not a religious at all, at least not in the sense we think of him. Don’t you find it somewhat remarkable that Pilate felt any sympathy/compassion for Jesus at all? I imagine he had crucified many people before.

Do you believe he knew who Jesus was or at least “sensed” something was different about Him? Did he realize the enormity of what he did, or did he just view Jesus as a rabble-rouser who he wanted “out of his hair?”

And after all, wasn’t the crucifixtion what was supposed to happen to Jesus? Can we really blame Pilate for making the decision to facilitate our redemption even if he had no knowledge of the matter? You can’t believe it would have been preferable to release Jesus would you?

It seems far more of a faciliation of our redemption that the oft mentioned excuse for Judas’ gethsemane smooch

 

[James_Tyler]

I don’t know much about him but I think one thing is true about him. He did not successfully wash his hands of it. He has been remembered. Maybe it is a lesson that we can learn from him. We can’t just wash our hands of God and walk away, in the truth.

 

[An_Atheist]

Truth is that which doesn’t stop existing when you stop believing in it.

 

[An_Atheist]

The Ethiopian Church venerates both Pilate and his wife on June 19. Early Church Fathers also go easy on the Roman. See "Saint Pontius Pilate? " commonwealmagazine.org/blog/saint-pontius-pilate

However, growing up I never had any friends named Pontius or Adolf.

When I was growing up, I had a friend named Adolf! No lie! And the craziest part is that he’s half-Jewish.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

When I was growing up, I had a friend named Adolf! No lie! And the craziest part is that he’s half-Jewish.

Adolf in German means Noble Wolf.

If your friend was a noble wolf, not so crazy.

 

[fisherman_carl]

Truth is that which doesn’t stop existing when you stop believing in it.

You mean like God for example?

 

[fisherman_carl]

My Bible commentary treats Pilots response to Jesus as a cynical response rather than an honest iniquiry into the nature of truth. Kind of like Jesus was saying ‘I bring truth’ and Pilate was saying ‘yeah right, what is truth anyway’.