With apologies to Francis Bacon. Pilate of course had Truth in front of him. He then reacted as men sometimes do when they encounter truth:
Thought for the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I have long swung back and forth about how I teach this scene. One of the issues with Scripture (and print in general) is tone isn’t conveyed unless it is specified.
Is Pilate being sarcastic? Dismissive? Does he really want to know? If read straightforwardly, the dramatic irony is heightened, but is that an assumption? And the visual media presentations of Pilate do absolutely *nothing* to come to any kind of consensus. I guess we’ll have to wait for the answer!
I always read Pilate as similar to Arias in Ben Hur.
“It’s a strange, stubborn faith you keep. To believe that existence has a purpose! A sane man would have learned to lose it long before this.”
As such, I personally hear contempt and despair when Pilate says “What is truth?”
Of course, like Josh, I will have to wait for the answer. Despite what the moderns think, there is only one true version of history – the resemblance of written history is like the work of a portrait artist. Sometimes you get Rembrandt, sometimes Picasso, but God save us from the shiny deliberate lies of the WPA poster!
WHO defines the sovereign person. WHO is the Third Person of God. I am always intrigued that Jesus Christ only spoke in Truth. How could Christ respond to Pilate? Would it do any good? Jesus loved Pilate enough to keep silent and let Pilate hear himself.
Jesus Christ only spoke when His Gospel would teach.