What is truth?

[Tellyontellyon]

Why didn't he answer?

 

[Ligurian]

Why didn't he answer?

The question "What is truth?" was sarcastic rhetoric.

Remember Pilate washing his hands of the whole mess? Obviously he'd been hearing the Pharisees and all their handwashing OCD.

 

[d taylor]

God/Jesus/Holy Spirit

 

[d taylor]

God/Jesus/Holy Spirit

 

[Halbhh]

Why didn't he answer?
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Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

Isaiah 53:8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied ;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

-- Prophecy of Isaiah
-----------

Jesus said his disciples would need a few swords in order to allow a false accusation against him of insurrection:

Luke 22:37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: 'And He was numbered with the transgressors.' For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment."

So, He very intentionally went forward into this, knowing what would happen, and sacrificing Himself to break the power of sin over us.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Your eastern mentors would have presented a philosophy of relative truth.

Jesus was not confirming this...

He Himself was Truth in a human Body.

His defeat of death confirms this.

 

[BobRyan]

Why didn't he answer?
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"to them that have shall more be given" Matt 13

Matt 13
10 And the disciples came up and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 And Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,

‘You shall keep on listening, but shall not understand;
And you shall keep on looking, but shall not perceive;
15 For the heart of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their heart, and return,
And I would heal them.’

==========================

This was spoken because in the previous chapters Jesus was speaking plainly and was healing the sick , casting out demons - and their response was "whatever He does - He does by the power of the devil". They were openly rejecting Him.

So also in the case of His trial. Pilate was at first ignorant of most of the basics - but his wife came to him in the midst of the trial and said God had given a dream and he was not to do anything against Christ. What is more declared openly "I find no fault in him" and yet condemned him to the most horrific death he knew of -- just to please others.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Why didn't he answer?
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Kind of like how "tone" is lost over the internet, so it is with other written media of communication.

Jesus didn't answer because the way it was said, was a statement. Jesus would answer with a question from time to time also. So this was not unique behavior.

 

[Tellyontellyon]

Your eastern mentors would have presented a philosophy of relative truth.

Buddhism talks of relative and absolute truth. Of absolute truth, not much can be said either

 

[Gregory Thompson]

In general, having to deal with politicians and nobles of the empire all day everyday - questioning that there is such a thing as "truth" would be common of politicians today if they were being honest.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Buddhism talks of relative and absolute truth. Of absolute truth, not much can be said either

Yes, I studied Buddhism years back and seem to remember that 'truth' reduces to Maya (illusion) - depending in the strain of the faith I guess.

This is in stark contrast to Christianity where Truth is anchored in History and is indeed absolute.

 

[com7fy8]

What is truth?

Why didn't he answer?

Well, Jesus says He is "the truth", in John 14:9.

And in 1 John 5:6 John says, "the Spirit is truth."

So, Jesus did answer Pilate's question . . . while talking with His disciples.

There are things He might tell first to His disciples, and therefore not to Pilate.

What Pilate needed was to answer to Jesus.

So . . . in case you are asking > God's word says Jesus is "the truth", and "the Spirit is truth." So, what does this mean, then? Well, for one thing, I see it means that both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God. After all, I would say God Himself is truth and not less.

And what might this mean? Truth can mean reality, or the best of desirable reality, of all that is good and cannot change. And certainly this would be God who "is love" > 1 John 4:8&16. What is real love, then? This would be the best true reality one could have, and Jesus is saying God through Jesus is our true reality of what and who and how real and unchangeable love is.

And Jesus "the truth" was right there in front of Pilate. And words alone could not tell Pilate how Jesus is the truth. Pilate needed to actually experience Jesus, inside himself.

May be it is like what the real truth about an elephant is. You know how blind men could each feel a different part of the elephant, then each could make one's own claim about what is the truth about an elephant. But the real truth is the elephant itself, not merely what different ones of different experience might say they have discovered about elephants.

And, of course, knowing the physical structure of an elephant is not really knowing the truth of an elephant. In order to know one, you might need to be one and live with elephants

Jesus is "the truth". And the Holy Spirit is "truth" who can live inside of us and share with us how God's love is, so we know genuine love by living the way this love has us becoming and loving. Then inside of us we have the truth . . . what God's word means . . . the love meaning.

After all . . . if people are only intellectual in their approach to God's word, you can tell someone about what the Bible says, but he or she will only get what he or she is capable of knowing from one's own experience.

It could be like if you talk with someone who has never heard a word about elephants, but indeed has hunted walrus. You can say an elephant is a massive animal; well, this is true of a walrus. You can say the elephant has tusks. And then, your friend can be certain this confirms you are talking about a walrus!

You can say God is "love", and right away ones will insist this means what they have already decided love has to be.

So, I see how Jesus did not only want to tell Pilate things. He wants to prove Himself in us. And then we will have actual experience of all He means . . . and intends . . . by His message.

 

[James_Lai]

Why didn't he answer?
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Maybe Jesus answered, but Pilate wasn’t interested to hear a response at that point: he rushed out to seek release of Jesus.

 

[Halbhh]

Jesus didn't answer because the way it was said, was a statement.

He very often spoke up even before people said something to Him, but here He choose to remain silent, and that's to fulfill scripture. Please see which one copied into post #5.

 

[disciple Clint]

Why didn't he answer?
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He was looking directly at the truth and could not recognize it, what more could be said.

 

[timf]

The bible calls four things truth;

God the Father
God the Son
God the Holy Spirit
The word of God

Truth is that which is real, absolute, and unchangeable.

Jesus had just told Pilate that all who were of the truth would hear his voice. Pilate was not of the truth. He was a pragmatist. He had his decisions overturned by the Jews who had complained to Caesar about him twice before. He was about to have an innocent man executed because he wanted to avoid getting in trouble again.

 

[EpicScore]

Pilate wasn't asking to get answers. He was retorting to Jesus's earlier statement: "You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (John 18:37)

Jesus was brought to Pilate under charges of treason. The religious leaders tried to use politics to get him executed. If Jesus did claim to be the King of the Jews, then Pilate would have found reason to charge him with with starting an uprising against Caesar, which would have been grounds for his execution. Pilate knows that these accusations against Jesus was false, and at this point I believe Jesus was actually challenging him to make a stand: "I am the Truth. Are you willing to stand up for the Truth, regardless of the consequences, or are you going to play the political games and compromise with Truth to appease the masses?"

Pilate probably understood what Jesus was getting at, but he's not prepared to commit to truth and justice if his political career would suffer as a result, so his retort, "What is Truth?" reflects not a desire to seek revelation, but an attempt to shrug off the challenge and ease his own conscience. If there's no such thing as an absolute truth, then the propositions that "Jesus is innocent and should be freed" and "he is guilty because the masses wanted him dead" are equally valid, and he can feel more at peace in making the "wrong" choice because without an absolute there's really no such thing as right and wrong.

And as James_Lai mentioned, Pilate didn't even wait for Jesus to answer. He immediately rushed out to argue the case with the crowd. He'd rather listen to the masses than Jesus, or even his own conscience.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Why didn't he answer?

From the context, it doesn't appear that Pilate gave Jesus another moment in which to answer.

Pilate asked, "What is truth?" ... from Pilate's own point of view, and as one who was more than likely familiar with the Greek philosophers and poets, he probably thought truth claims were a dime a dozen, especially where multiple competing truth claims were present. Kind of like today---We have talking heads everywhere.

The better question is: What is the point of the gospel writer to have included this dialogue in the first place? To make a literary emphasis upon a theme we find overall in this particular gospel? Yes, I think so.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Why didn't he answer?
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"Why should [the gods] hear the babble we think we mean?" CS Lewis, Til We Have Faces (A Fable Retold)

In a sense, or maybe, to a degree, none of us ask real, or honest questions. They are all full of presumption. That might work in a public interview with the president, but not with God.

 

[aiki]

Why didn't he answer?

John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Pilate stood in the presence of The Truth and knew it not. And, it seems to me, he did not want to know. Hence, the silence of Jesus.