Aletheia
A. The adjective aletheia (a)lhvqeia) has the following cognates:
1. Alethes (a)lhqhv$) (adjective), “
2. Aletheuo (a)lhqeuvw) (verb), “to be truthful, to speak the truth.”
3. Aletheia (a)lhvqeia) (noun), “truth, dependability, freedom from error, integrity.”
4. Alethinos (a)lhqinov$) (adjective), “true, dependable, genuine, real.”
5. Aletho (a)lhvqw) (verb), “to grind.”
6. Alethos (a)lhqw~$) (adverb), “truly, really, certainly.”
B. Classical
1. The noun aletheia etymologically has the meaning of something not concealed.
2. It denoted something, which was not hidden or a disclosure of something, which was hidden.
3. Aletheia is a compound composed of the Greek letter alpha and the verb lanthano, “to escape notice, to be
unknown, unseen, hidden, concealed.”
4. The Greek letter alpha prefixed to any word makes that word mean the opposite of its original meaning.
5. Thus, lanthano means, “hidden, concealed,” and alanthano, “unhidden, unconcealed.”
6. The Greek idea of truth is therefore, that which is unconcealed, unhidden, that which will bear scrutiny and
investigation, that which is open to the light of day.
7. The word indicates “a matter or state to the extent that it is seen, indicated or expressed, and that in such
seeing, indication or expression it is disclosed, or discloses itself, as it really is, with the implication, of
course, that it might be concealed, falsified, truncated, or suppressed. It therefore, denotes the ‘full or real
state of affairs” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, volume 1, page 238).
8. The Greek philosophers used the word in the sense of that which really exists, or the reality behind all
apparent reality.
9. They used it to indicate real being in the absolute sense.
10. In classical Greek, aletheia stands opposite to that which is only apparent or perceived to be real.
11. The noun appears in many different contexts.
12. The Greek philosophy used the word as well as the historians.
13. It was also used of course as a legal term characterizing an accurate assessment of a fact, in contrast to an
incorrect observation or assertion.
14. Aletheia was used in judicial terminology for the “actual state of affairs to be maintained against different
statements.”
15. In Homer aletheia was used in contrast to the telling of a lie or to withholding of information (Iliad, 24,
407; Odyssey 11, 507).
16. The word in the Iliad (12, 433) refers to a woman who is careful, honest, accurate, or even perhaps reliable.
17. Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon used aletheia in opposition to falsehood meaning “truth, actual
truth” (Herodotus 1, 116; Thucydides 2, 41, 2).
18. These historians used aletheia to denote real events as distinct from myths.
19. The Hellenistic writers employed this usage as well.
20. Josephus used aletheia in several different ways.
21. He used aletheia as that which corresponds to the facts of the matter (Antiquities 6, 225).
22. Truth is demonstrated to be such by historical events as in the words of the prophets (Antiquities 2, 209).
23. Aletheia not only stands for irrefutable facts, but it also expresses the truth itself, that which is unattainable
to the human mind and which can only be perceived in ecstasy and through divine revelation.
24. Liddel and Scott (Greek-English Lexicon, New Edition, page 63):
a. Truth
(1) Reality
(2) Real war
(3) True event, realization of dream or omen
b. Of persons, truthfulness, sincerity
c. Personified
d. Symbol of truth, Jewel worn by Egyptian high priest
C. LXX
1. The nearest Hebrew equivalent to the Greek noun aletheia is `emeth and the LXX often translates `emeth
with the noun aletheia.
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2.
The Hebrew `emeth can have the following meanings depending upon the context: “reliability, truth,
faithfulness.”
3. It denotes the qualities of “firmness,” “faithfulness,” and “truth.”
4. ‘Emeth was used in the Old Testament as the fundamental expression of the character of God and is
grounded in the faithfulness of God.
5. The word was used in combination with chesedh, “grace-love” (Ps. 85:10 [LXX 84:10]); 89:14 [LXX
88:14]).
6. These 2 words together form the background for John’s statement in the prologue of his Gospel, which is
“grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17).
7. The faithfulness, which the God of Israel demonstrated to His people and His covenant, is a historical
manifestation of the truth of God, His ` emeth.
8. Therefore, the Old Testament concept of truth is inextricably linked to the covenant relationship between
the Lord and Israel.
9. God binds Himself to His spoken word and is faithful toward His covenant people.
10. ‘Emeth was also used of truth in an objective sense as a body of knowledge or ethical instruction.
D. NT
1. The noun aletheia appears approximately 114 times in the Greek New Testament.
2. The word primarily appears in the Pauline and Johannine corpus.
3. The New Testament presents aletheia, “truth” as the divine will of God and as the proper response of
believers in fellowship with God.
4. Truth is an attribute of God and is the divine will of God.
5. God is "the God of truth" (Isa 65:16).
6. The psalmist declared, "Your law is truth" (119:142), "all Your commandments are truth" (119:151),
and "the entirety of Your word is truth" (119:160).
7. Because of His perfect nature and will, God has to speak and act in truth; He cannot lie (1 Sam 15:29; Heb
6:18; James 1:17-18).
8. Jesus is the Word of God who became flesh, "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth"
(John 1:14).
9. All Jesus said was true, because He told the truth which He heard from God (John 8:40).
10. He promised His disciples that He would send "the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13)-a Mentor
and Teacher who would abide in Christians forever (John 14:16), testify about Jesus (John 15:26), guide
Christians into all truth (John 16:13), and glorify Jesus (John 16:14).
11. God is truth; the Spirit is truth; and Jesus is truth.
12. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me"
(John 14:6).
13. Jesus and the revelation, which the Spirit of truth gave through His apostles, are the final, ultimate
revelation and definition of truth about God, man, redemption, history, and the world.
14. "The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
15. God and truth tied together just as sinful man is characterized by living a lie (Rm. 3:3-7).
16. This attribute of truth is expressed in the Word of God.
17. It is manifested in history through the fulfillment of prophecy both in the Person and Work of Christ and
the church and Israel.
18. The unbeliever lives a lie because he is enslaved to the father of lies, Satan.
19. The believer has been delivered from the power of the lie at the moment he exercises faith alone in Christ
alone who is the way, the truth and the life (Jn. 14:6).
20. Aletheia expresses the revelation of the truth of God in Jesus Christ and exposes the lies of Satan and his
cosmic system.
21. Jesus Christ was the truth of God incarnate.
22. He revealed God who because of His holiness was hidden from the entire human race because of sin.
23. In God, truthfulness is related to His omniscience (Jb. 28:20-26; 38; 39).
24. Whatever we know depends upon God since He is the Creator.
25. All truth is God’s truth.
26. Our cognitive abilities are His creation, and the intelligibility of nature attests His wisdom.
27. God’s knowledge is perfect meaning He does not have to learn anything since He is omniscience.
28. The believer must acquire knowledge.
29. He must learn truth from God since all truth is inherent in God’s nature whereas we are devoid of truth.
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The believer’s knowledge is contingent upon God revealing Himself.
His knowledge is limited and provisional.
As Paul says, “we see in a mirror dimly” and “know in part.”
God’s truth is unlimited, immutable and absolute.
The believer is in the process of acquiring truth from God’s revelation of Himself, which is the Word of
God.
Truth for God is complete since it is a part of His divine nature.
In the Greek New Testament aletheia is first that which has certainty and force, whether as a valid form
(Eph. 4:21; Gal. 2:14), as judicial righteousness or more generally uprightness meaning practicing the truth.
Another use of truth in the New Testament is truth as that on which one can rely.
This use may involve the more objective sense of reliability (Rm. 3:4, 7) or it may involve the more
subjective sense of sincerity or honesty (2 C. 7:14).
The word aletheia is used in relation to the real state of affairs as revealed or made known (Rm. 1:18, 25).
It is also denotes accuracy of a statement (Lk. 4:25; 22:59).
The word is used of course of absolute truth that appears in the Word of God. (2 Th. 2:9-13).
Truth in the New Testament is also divine reality or revelation.
This use appears frequently in the writings of the apostle John.
The practice or application of the absolute truth of the Word of God is a response to God’s revelation of
Himself and the Work of Christ at the Cross.
Obedience to truth begins with the thought process.
The believer must learn and apply truth to his thought process before he can have it manifest itself in words
and actions (cf. Rm. 12:1-3).
Truth is of course connected to the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus calls him “the Spirit of Truth” (Jn.
14:17; 15:26; Jn. 16:7-11).
The Holy Spirit supernaturally directed the human authors of Scripture without coercing them, or
destroying their literary style, personal vocabulary, or personality, God’s complete and connected thought
was recorded in perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture, thus the original languages bear the
authority of divine authorship as the exact mind and will of God.
The believer is commanded to worship and serve God by means of the Spirit (Jn. 4:23-24; Phlp. 3:3).
The Holy Spirit makes the absolute truth of the Word real and understandable to both the believer and
unbeliever (Jn. 16:7-11).
The Spirit and the Word are the 2 Great Grace Divine Provisions, which feed the new indwelling nature in
the believer and provide the believer the capacity to love and serve God and his fellow man and thus
execute the will of the Father.
At the moment of hearing the Gospel, the Holy Spirit makes the issue of salvation and Christ as Savior real
to the unbeliever or understandable in order that he might make a decision to either accept or reject Christ
as Savior.
After salvation, the Holy Spirit again makes the Word of God understandable to the believer so that he
might make the proper application in his own life.
God the Holy Spirit reveals the will of the Father to the believer through the communication of the Word of
God whether by the believer’s divinely ordained pastor-teacher or other believer’s operating under the
royal priesthood.
The believer’s responsibility is to exercise faith in the Word of God meaning he must trust or take God at
His Word.
Faith is characterized by obedience to the Father’s will as reveal by the Holy Spirit through the
communication of the Word of truth.
It is both assent to truth and dependence upon the truth found in the Word of God and which the Holy Spirit
to the believer reveals.
God’s truth is found in His revelation of Himself in the Person of Christ and the mind of Christ, which is
the Word of God.
Truth is presented in Scripture as a chief element in the nature of God (Ps 31:5; Isa 65:16).
But this quality is never given as an abstract teaching, but only as qualifying God in His relations and
activities.
So it is a guaranty of constancy (Deut 32:4; Ps 100:5; 146:6; James 1:17); especially a ground of
confidence in His promises (Ex 34:6; Ps 91:4; 146:6); of right dealing with men without reference to any
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explicit pledges (Ps 85:11; 89:14); a basis of security in the correctness of His teachings (Neh 9:13; Ps
119:142; Isa 25:1); of assurance within His covenant relations (Ps 89:5; Isa 55:3).
God's truth is especially noteworthy as a guaranty of merciful consideration of men.
This is an important element in the theology of the Old Testament, as it is a point guarded also in the New
Testament (Ps 25:10; 31:5; 61:7; 85:10; 98:3; John 3:16; Rom 3:23-26).
Equally is the truth of God an assurance to men of righteous judgment in condemnation of sin and sinners
(1 Sam 15:29; Ps 96:13; Rom 2:2,8).
In general the truth of God stands for the consistency of His nature and guarantees His full response in all
the relations of a universe of which He is the Creator, Sustainer and Consummation of all things.
As related to God in origin, obligation and accountability, man is bound morally to see and respond to all
the demands of his relations to God and to the order in which he lives under God.
Truthfulness in speech, and also in the complete response of his nature to the demand upon it, is urged as a
quality to be found in man and is commended where found, as its lack is condemned.
It is essential to true manhood.
Truth is regarded as revealed in social relations and responsibilities (Mk. 12:28-31; Rm. 13:8-11).
Truth is not merely in utterance, nor is it only response to a specific command or word, but lies in the
response of the will and life to the essential obligations of one's being (Ps 15:2; 119:30; Prov 12:19; 23:23;
Isa 59:4,14-15; Jer 7:28; 9:3; Hos 4:1; Rom 1:18,25; Eph 4:15; 2 Thess 2:10,12).
Truth in man is in response to truth in God, and is to be acquired on the basis of a gift from God.
This gift comes by way of biblical instruction and also by way of the working of the believer’s true Mentor
and Teacher, God the Holy Spirit in the life of believer.
Highest truth in correspondence to ideal is possible only by the working of "the God of truth" in the spirit
of the believer.
Man's freedom to realize God’s purpose for creating him is dependent upon his receptive attitude toward
the Son of God.
Hence salvation in its fullest idea is stated in terms of truth (John 11:3 ff; Phil 3:10 ff).
As we noted aletheia etymologically has the meaning of something not concealed.
It denoted something, which was not hidden or a disclosure of something, which was hidden.
Paul employs a similar word to denote that, which has been revealed, which was previously hidden to men
and that word is the noun musterion.
For Paul musterion referred to that body of doctrine in the Word of God, which was previously hidden to
Old Testament saints but now has been revealed to church age believers.
The living Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed a holy God to sinners (Jn. 1:17) and the New
Testament doctrines reveal Christ who Himself reveals God to men.
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (pages 35-36):
a. Truthfulness, dependability, uprightness in thought and deed
b. Truth
c. General sense
d. Especially of the content of Christianity as the absolute truth
e. Reality as opposed to mere appearance
The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised (page 15):
a. Truth, verity
b. Love of truth, veracity, sincerity
c. Divine truth revealed to man
d. Practice in accordance with Gospel truth
The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon (page 26):
a. Objectively
(1) What is true in any matter under consideration; truly, in truth, according to truth; of a truth, in
reality, in fact, certainly
(2) In reference to religion, the word denotes what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties
of man; with the greatest latitude in the skeptical question “what is truth?”; the true notions of
God, which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention; the truth, as taught in
the Christian religion, respecting God and the execution of His purposes through Christ, and
respecting the duties of man
b. Subjectively,
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(1) Truth as a personal excellence; that candor of mind which is free from affectation, pretence,
simulation, falsehood, deceit; sincerity of mind and integrity of character or a mode of life in
harmony with divine truth.
84. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, “the content of that which is
true and thus in accordance with what actually happened – ‘truth’” (volume 2, page 673).
85. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, “aletheia, "truth," is used (a) objectively, signifying "the
reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested, veritable essence of a matter" (Cremer), e. g.,
Rom 9:1; 2 Cor 11:10; especially of Christian doctrine, e. g., Gal 2:5, where "the truth of the Gospel"
denotes the "true" teaching of the Gospel, in contrast to perversions of it; Rom 1:25, where "the truth of
God" may be "the truth concerning God" or "God whose existence is a verity"; but in Rom 15:8 "the truth
of God" is indicative of His faithfulness in the fulfillment of His promises as exhibited in Christ; the word
has an absolute force in John 14:6; 17:17; 18:37,38; in Eph 4:21, where the RV, "even as truth is in Jesus,"
gives the correct rendering, the meaning is not merely ethical "truth," but "truth" in all its fullness and
scope, as embodied in Him; He was the perfect expression of the truth; this is virtually equivalent to His
statement in John 14:6; (b) subjectively, "truthfulness," "truth," not merely verbal, but sincerity and
integrity of character, John 8:44; 3 John 3, RV; (C) in phrases, e. g., "in truth" (epi, "on the basis of"), Mark
12:14; Luke 20:21; with en, "in," 2 Cor 6:7; Col 1:6; 1 Tim 2:7, RV (KJV, "in... verity"), 1 John 3:18; 2
John 1,3,4. Note: In Matt 15:27, KJV, nai, "yea" (RV), is translated "truth."
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