Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not from this world. If my Kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is my Kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” John 18:33-38[1].
In John’s account of the trial of Jesus before Pilate, the themes of kingship, kingdom and truth are engaged significantly. The Jews brought Jesus before Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, in his headquarters in Jerusalem. Pilate questions Jesus, but in Jesus’s notable manner of answering questions, as demonstrated throughout the gospel of John, he either replies with another question or speaks in obscure language (for example, see Matthew 21:23-27, Mark 12:14-17, Luke 22:70-71). Here, Pilate’s questions appear to be more out of curiosity than a trial. It seems Pilate is seeking the truth. When he asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews, Jesus asks back if Pilate knew that on his own or he was told. Pilate then answers with another question, and Jesus claims that it is Pilate who said that he [Jesus] is the king of the Jews. Jesus goes on to explain that his kingdom, however, is not of this world. This statement reenacts the theme of Jesus’s divinity—the Son of God whom he sent to redeem the world, which is the major cause of his conflict with the Jews. In one of his arguments with the Jews, he claims that he is from God and tells them the truth that he heard from his Father, God (John 8:38). He also says that “before Abraham, I am,” and the Pharisees ask him how he can make such a claim as he not even fifty yet (John 8:38-58). Before Pilate, however, Jesus does not say that he is the king of the Jews, but that Pilate said so. While he does not answer directly, saying instead that it was to testify to the truth that he was born and came into the world, he does insist that he does not belong to a worldly kingdom. This response to Pilate’s question suggests that Jesus is referring to the kingdom of God who is above. Later during his trial when Pilate tries to coerce him to speak, saying that he has the power to kill or free him, Jesus answers that Pilate would have that power if given him from above (John 19:9-11). Jesus is claiming his authority is from God in whose kingdom he belongs; from whom he has his authority; and God is the only one who has power over him. Since this is a conversation that Pilate had with Jesus in his private chamber, the purpose of his claim seems to be to reveal his identity to Pilate as he had always done before the Jews. This demonstrates his unshifting claim of sonship of God, which perhaps is his own truth. The “truth” is what Jesus tells Pilate that he came into the world to testify to. He, however, does not answer Pilate’s next question, “what is truth?”
Since Jesus leaves the question of what truth is unanswered, the reader is left to seek for the answer. Truth denotes a spiritual or genuine reality. It also refers to an undeniable or obvious fact. It is quite difficult to define truth as not every reality that is general to everybody. This may explain why Jesus’s truth about himself differs from the Pharisees’ truth about him. What is this truth that Jesus speaks of? Truth is used in different contexts in the Bible, both in its literal and deeper sense. In its deeper meaning, it is used in reference to God’s message (good news or gospel) of salvation. It also refers to the name of God.
Truth is sometimes used in the New Testament to mean the good news. In John’s letter, he writes that God sent Jesus into the world for this good news, and the Holy Spirit bore testimony. That testimony is of God (1 John 5:6-7). The message that Jesus came to preach was about the kingdom which he refers to in his conversation with Pilate. It is stated more expressly in Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” In John 8 (referenced above) Jesus told the Jews that it is the truth he heard from God that he spoke to them about.
Truth is also used to personify Jesus, Word of God, through whom God created the universe. As John writes, the Word is Jesus Christ, and Jesus is the truth (John 1:1-5; 14:6). A careful perusal of these scriptures will also reveal that all persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit are all called the truth, in several instances. This sounds paradoxical and unappealing to common sense. In 1 John 5:7, for instance, the Holy Spirit is also called the truth. This, therefore, suggests that God is truth, since Jesus testified to the message of God, who also testified of him through the Holy Spirit. In the Baptism (Matthew 3:17) and Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5. Mark 9:7. Luke 9:35) accounts in the synoptic gospels, the authors write that a voice (believed to be God’s) is heard from “above” saying, “This is my beloved Son.” This shows God’s testimony about Jesus’s truth.
Jesus presents the truth as the means of obtaining God’s salvation. Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father through me.” One cannot go to God (the Father above) expect if one accepts the message of Jesus. Jesus also prayed that God should sanctify the disciples in truth (John 17:17). Sanctification is the means by which one becomes holy and acceptable to God. He also told the Jews that the truth “will set you free” (John 8:32). Jesus was making them understand that they could only be free from condemnation if they accepted his good news. The Jews in that passage claim that they are not slaves and do not need to be set free. But Jesus insists that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin, and if he, “the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (verses 34 and 36).
Another context in which the truth is referred to is John 4:23-24, where Jesus talks about the true worshipers who will “worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.” This links to the other scriptures where Jesus is talking about salvation. It is only those who are saved through him that can truly worship God, and the Jews were not yet saved at that time until they could accept his good news.
In Jesus’s trial, he does not answer the question of what truth is. However, in his various teachings and encounters with different sets of people, he talked about the truth. It is a puzzle that he leaves the question in John 18 unanswered. If it is the same truth that he talks about in other contexts, why then does he not answer? Could it be that the message or good news is not relevant to Pilate who is a Roman? If, however, the truth that Jesus claims to have come to bear witness to is different from that which he talks about in other contexts, then there remains a question for New Testament scholars to unravel.
[1] M.D. [editor] Coogan (ed.) (2010) The new Oxford annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version: with the Apocrypha: an ecumenical study Bible. Fully revised fourth edition. Oxford, [England]; New York, [New York], Oxford University Press.
