What is truth?

The Truth

"They must find it difficult...
Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority."
- Gerald Massey

John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 18:38
Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?

Truth is that which delineates that which is. The meaning of the word truth extends from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular. The term has no single definition about which the majority of professional philosophers and scholars agree. Various theories of truth continue to be debated. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth; how to define and identify truth; the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute.

Aristotle stated: “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true."

Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself. He called his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth". He would later change this statement to "Truth is God".

In early Islamic philosophy, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) defined truth as:
What corresponds in the mind to what is outside it.

Avicenna said:

"The truth of a thing is the property of the being of each thing which has been established in it."

In medieval Christian philosophy, Thomas Aquinas wrote an elegant re-statement of Aristotle's view in his Summa I.16.1:
Veritas est adæquatio intellectus et rei. (Truth is the conformity of the intellect to the things.)

In his Quodlibeta, Thomas Aquinas wrote a commentary on Avicenna's definition of truth in his Metaphysics and explained it as follows:
The truth of each thing, as Avicenna says in his Metaphysica, is nothing else than the property of its being which has been established in it. So that is called true gold which has properly the being of gold and attains to the established determinations of the nature of gold. Now, each thing has properly being in some nature because it stands under the complete form proper to that nature, whereby being and species in that nature is.

Exodus 3:14
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

"I is be."

The Tetragrammaton, the name of the God of Israel, written with four letters, as preserved in the Hebrew Masoretic Text where it appears over 6,800 times. These four letters are usually transliterated JHWH in German, French and Dutch, and either YHWH, YHVH, JHWH or JHVH in English. In English translations, it is often rendered in all capital letters as "LORD," following Jewish tradition. Yahweh is an English rendition of יהוה
Traditionally, observant Jews do not say this name aloud, as it is believed to be too sacred to be uttered, but often use euphemisms when referring to the name of the deity, e.g., HaShem ("The Name") or Shem HaMeforash (“the ineffable Name.”)

I am that I am (Hebrew: אהיה אשר אהיה, pronounced Ehyeh asher ehyeh) is one English translation of the response God used in the Bible when Moses asked for his name (Exodus 3:14). It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah. Hayah means "existed" or "was" in Hebrew; "ehyeh" is the first person singular present/future form. Ehyeh asher ehyeh is generally interpreted to mean I am that I am. Which is most literally translated as "I-shall-be that I-shall-be." It is usually translated as "I will be."

It stems from the Hebrew conception of monotheism that God exists within each and everyone and by himself, the uncreated Creator who does not depend on anything or anyone.

Jesus is the YHWH, the "I am"of the Old and New Testaments.

In the Gospel of John Jesus the Messiah repeats eight times he is "I am", the same "I am" he told Moses in Exodus 3:14.

Exodus 3:13-15:

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I Am has sent me to you.' " ... (YHWH) This is my name for ever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

1- I am the bread of life (Jn.6:35)

2- I am the light of the world (Jn.8:12)

3- I am the gate (Jn.10:9)

4- I am the good shepherd (Jn.10:11.

5- I am the resurrection (Jn.11:25)

6- I am the way and the truth and the life (Jn.14:6)

7- I am the true vine (Jn.15:1)

8- Before Abraham was, I am (Jn.8:58)

... this last "I am" of Jesus the Messiah has the scent of eternity and power... not "I was", but "I am"... I am the immutable one, the author of all change and movement... Jesus is always eternally the same I am... "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb.13:8).

Jesus not only came to show us the way... He Himself is the Way! Jesus not only came to teach us the truth... He himself is the only Truth! Jesus nor only came to show us how to live... He himself is the only Life! Jesus Himself is a our bread of life, and our light, and our creator, and our savior, and the resurrection...

Do you have needs or problems in your life?: I am with you always, trust in me! (Mt.28:20), I am your good Shepherd, says Jesus... I am the one who nourishes you, and heals you, and saves you, the one always with you to love you...

Do you need life or light or salvation?: I am the life and the light and the salvation, trust in me!, says Jesus the Messiah.

Do you need forgiveness of sins or the joy of the grace?: I am forgiveness and the grace, says Jesus... here I am, trust in me!.

Jesus is your health, he wants to be your physician and your lawyer, and your accountant, and your love, and he wants to fill you with joy and love and peace, now on earth and in Heaven, because he himself is the joy and the love and the peace for all eternity!

… he is the "I am"!. And he is not only "with" us, he is "inside" us, Abide in me, and I in you (Jn.15:4), we in Him, in his Mystical Body, in his Church, and He in us, as Paul claims, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Gal.2:20)

... If a man remains in me, in my Church, and I in him, in grace, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (Jn.15:5).

Jesus says: he that hath seen me hath seen the Father (Jn.14:9)... so, actually, the best picture of God the Father is Jesus on the crib at Bethlehem, or on the cross at Calvary, or as a carpenter... yes, whoever sees Jesus sees the Father!

- Elohim is translated as God and stands primarily for God the Father, the Almighty one.

- Yahweh (Jehovah) is translated as Lord. This is the pre-incarnate Jesus.

- Adonai is translated as Lord, My Supreme Lord.

Hear O Israel, YHWH is our Elohiym, YHWH is One. And we shall love YHWH our Elohiym with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might. (Deut.6:4-5, the Shema)

I, even I, am YHWH; and beside Me there is no savior.(Is.43:11).

Tell and bring them near; yes let them take counsel together: who has declared this from ancient time? who has told it from that time? have not I YHWH? and there is no Elohiym else beside Me; a just Elohiym and a Savior; there is none beside Me. (Is.45:21-25).

Matthew 27:54Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Mark 15:39And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

Luke 22:70Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am.

John 1:34And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.

John 1:49Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

John 3:18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 11:27She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

John 19:7The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

John 20:31But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Acts 8:37And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Acts 9:20And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

Hebrews 4:14Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

Hebrews 7:3Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

1 John 4:15Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

1 John 5:12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

1 John 5:20And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

And thats the truth...