Arguments for Authenticity
Unleashing Latent Truths
“What is truth?” asked Pontius Pilate of his supplicant prisoner; and in doing so, he was essentially asking this question on behalf of all humanity. But according to the canonical record, Jesus offered no reply to Pilate. So why did He not answer him? If God is no respecter of persons, as the Scriptures assure us, then the One Who was to give His life as a ransom for mankind would certainly have answered such an important question. After all, Jesus stated that this was the very reason He came into the world: “To testify to the truth.”1 Yet based on the Apostle John’s account, Jesus was inexplicably silent as to the exact nature of this truth.
Fortunately, for us, though, John was not the only person who recorded the events surrounding this pivotal moment in history. As it turns out, there is another take on this same conversation, which can be found in the apocryphal record known as The Gospel of Nicodemus, formerly called The Acts of Pontius Pilate. According to this version of the story, Jesus did answer the question.
So Pilate asked, “What is truth?”
And Jesus replied, “Truth is from Heaven.”
To which the somewhat disappointed Pilate replied, “Then truth is not of this Earth; is that it?”
But Jesus looked the governor squarely in the eye and replied, “Don’t be too sure, my friend, because truth does exist on this Earth, but it does so among those who, having the power of judgment, are governed by the truth and who form proper judgment because of that truth.”2
Story Continues Below
To hear Kent talk about the little-known biblical prophecy, which speaks of the 5,500-year chronology from Adam to Christ, with Zen Garcia, the host of the Internet talk show Secrets Revealed, CLICK BELOW.
Story Continues From Above
Confronted by such an alternate version, one must then ask the obvious question. Which version of this story should be accepted as the truth? To which I would reply: Maybe they are both true. After all, when one considers that there are different accounts in Scripture of Noah’s animals and Judas’ death, why would we expect there to be only one version of this event in the life of Jesus? It seems to me that one should look to their own conscience in such matters, because in the final analysis this is all any of us can do in our all-too-human pursuit of historical truth. In other words, one must honestly ask themselves: Do the words of Jesus in this particular story sound like those that would have been spoken by the One Who is the very embodiment of truth? Or do they contradict what one might expect Jesus to have said? The words ring true in both versions, do they not? If so, then why not simply accept the fact that we are dealing with two complimentary versions of the same event.
