The author of the Gospel of John has some interesting
statements coming directly out of the mouth of Jesus.
In the specific case that follows, skeptics claim that Jesus lied
when he claimed to the high priest who was questioning him that
he never spoke his teachings in secret but always taught them
openly and in public.
Jesus answered the high priest with the following:
John 18:19-20
The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his
doctrine.
Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in
the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort;
and in secret have I said nothing.
Despite claiming that he spoke nothing in secret, Jesus did
indeed do exactly that as exhibited in the scriptural passages of
Mark 4:10-12 and Matt 13:34-42. (These verses will
be cited in detail in the analysis).
The following excerpts are from a series of rationializations
that attempt to demonstrate Jesus did not lie about this.
This issue was raised in a skeptical forum that looks at various
Bible topics directly relating to inerrancy.
Christian stated:
It is one thing to assail the bible for its errors, and certainly
there are many.
However, its errors do not prove that everything in it is a lie.
The most important truths in the Bible came from the life and
teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded in the four gospels,
regardless of attendant errors.
Commentary:
This apologist does not appear to be a fundamentalist Christian
but rather a "liberal" Christian who feels there are
errors in the Bible along with elements of truth.
While this is a far more reasonable stance to take on the Bible
than a fundamentalist one, it also opens a Pandora's box of
problems as well.
If there are errors in the Bible, how do you know which parts are
truth and which parts are in error???
In the end, this more liberal type of believer defines which
parts of the Bible are true based on their personal perceptions,
and in the process they create their own personalized religion.
They decide what parts are to be taken as truth and what parts
are in error, instead of holding a position that the whole Bible
is the inerrant word of God.
All Christians practice this type of mental Bible writing
exercise whether they realize it or not.
The Bible will ultimately mean whatever the believer wants it to
mean.
Christian:
Jesus was reputed to be perfect, to live a perfect human life.
Neither the apostles, nor those who wrote the gospels were.
Commentary:
Since this Christian has already stated that the Bible has many
errors, and now states that those who wrote the Gospels were not
perfect, the claim that Jesus was "perfect" rests on a
platform of thin air.
The definition of Jesus, on whose head the crown of perfection
was alleged to reside, is found solely in the very New Testament
whose writers are imperfect, and whose writings appear in the
Bible, which this Christian already said has many errors in it.
Christian:
A perfect person is always loyal to truth.
Therefore Jesus did not lie, and your(skeptics) attempt to catch
him in a lie is futile.
You(skeptics) have merely discovered another inconsistency in the
rendering of the story about Jesus and his teachings.
Big Deal.
Commentary:
This argument is circular and is also an attempt to nonchalantly
dismiss a severe contradiction on the part of the allegedly
"perfect" man Jesus.
The circular logic construct used here is:
Yet, this same believer already stated that the Bible has many
errors in it, that its writers were not perfect, and were prone
to inconsistency in the rendering of their story.
This means there is no way to know if a character called Jesus
was perfect or not.
Simply asserting, feeling, or assuming Jesus was perfect means
nothing if the very writings that define his actions have errors
in them.
The real problem demonstrated here is that the carefully
propagandized cult image of a "perfect" Jesus has
become so imprinted on society by the Christian advertising
machine, that even the smallest possibility of Jesus being less
than the legend his followers make him out to be is simply
inconceivable.
Christian:
You(skeptics) are so intent on "proving" the bible is
full of lies, that you feel it necessary to impugn the only
perfect human who ever lived on our world.
Commentary:
Apparently simple assertion is sufficient to establish as fact
the idea that Jesus was the only perfect human to have ever lived
and that Jesus could not possibly have told a lie.
The main motive for making this claim and adopting this stance is
dictated by expediency and not based on fact, as there is no way
to know what the facts are in a Bible which contains many errors
and whose writers are prone to inconsistent storytelling.
Jesus could never have lied, because if he did, the whole
structure of the perfect sinless man crumbles and it drags the
very foundation of Christianity down with it.
This more liberal minded believer wants to claim that the Gospel
message of Jesus is true regardless of whatever errors may be
present in the Bible. An untruthful Jesus could upset the
theological applecart this believer wheels around.
Naturally, they've decided which parts of the Bible are true and
which parts are false. In essence, they've written their own
Gospel and have then personally decided that a character called
Jesus agrees with them.
For fundamentalist Christianity, the consequences of an
untruthful Jesus are fatal.
The perfect human sin sacrifice made to appease and satisfy the
perfection demanding God would turn out to be shine without
substance. Such a revelation would be more than any rigid
religious doctrine could endure without a massive rewrite of the
core programming.
In any event, this particular believer has decided that Jesus did
not lie in his statement which appears in John 18:20.
The specifics of the rationalization follow:
Christian:
More to the point, the assertion that Jesus lied is inaccurate.
Jesus openly taught both directly and in parables. His direct
teachings were to his apostles and other close associates
throughout his four-year public ministry, and as far as the
record shows, he did not teach through parables early in his
ministry.
He began teaching through parables later in his ministry, after
the officers and agents of the Sanhedrin began following him
around and working to catch him blaspheming. He used parables to
share truth with spiritually immature followers, and to minimize
harassment by the Sanhedrin.
Commentary:
Jesus claimed he used parables to keep some people from
understanding and being saved.
Mark 4:10-12
And when he(Jesus) was alone, they that were
about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these
things are done in parables:
That seeing they may see, and not perceive;
and hearing they may hear, and not understand;
lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should
be forgiven them.
How is the use of parables with the intent being to deceive
people so that they will not understand and be saved sharing
"truth" with these people?
The issue of when Jesus used parables and the assertion that he
was trying to minimize harassment are irrelevant to this
discussion.
Mark 4 is a fairly early chapter in the Gospel of Mark,
which contains 16 chapters in total, and Jesus is using parables
as a common practice in Mark 4.
There is no mystery why Jesus uses them.
Jesus explicitly said his parables were designed and used so that
some people would not perceive the truth.
The secrets of the Kingdom are reserved for a select group and
were taught in secret as well.
The evidence for private instruction, to a select group of
insiders, is also found in Mark 4:34.
Mark 4:34
but without a parable spoke he not to them; and in private
he explained all things to his disciples.
Christian:
The parables themselves could be considered by some with obscure
thinking to be lies, but that is really a stretch.
Commentary:
Why is it obscure thinking to associate the deliberate act of
hiding the truth, through the use of parables specifically
designed to confuse people, with lying?
Christian:
Parables were mere stories from which many worthy meanings,
values, and truths could be derived, provided one were intent
upon learning meanings, values, and truths.
The implication is that truth-hunger will allow a person to see
truth in many commonplace things, just as people see images of
Jesus in cloud formations.
Commentary:
Jesus stated that he used confusing parables for the express
purpose of creating misunderstanding among the people.
The intent of Jesus was to confuse some people.
The purpose of this deception was to "fulfill" prophecy
from the Book of Isaiah(Isa 6:9-10).
Matt 13:13-15
Therefore speak I(Jesus) to them in parables: because they seeing
see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By
hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand;
and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull
of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time
they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and
should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and
I should heal them.
Regardless of how much "truth hunger" a person had, the
purpose of the parable was to harden the people so that they
would not see the truth and convert.
If a listener wasn't privy to the private conversations of Jesus
with his immediate followers, they were out of luck as far as the
truth was concerned. Jesus didn't want outside listeners to know
that the parables were not designed to reveal the truth.
They were designed to keep many people confused.
It should also be noted that the fulfillment of the prophecy was
accomplished by Isaiah long before the Gospel writers of Mark and
Matthew attempted to retrofit Jesus into the equation to make it
appear that he was the fulfillment.
The fuller context of Isaiah follows:
Isa 6:8-11
Also I(Isaiah) heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I
send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
And he(God) said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but
understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and
shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with
their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be
healed.
Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be
wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the
land be utterly desolate,
Isaiah was the one who God would send to harden the people so
that they could be used for God's purpose.
The prophet Isaiah was sent by God on a special mission to
confuse the people until such time as the cities would be without
it's people as they would be carried off into exile in Assyria.
This was all done hundreds of years prior to Jesus even
appearing. Naturally, the authors of Mark and Matthew left out of
their reference to Isaiah the verses that show Isaiah was the
real messenger and that the deception and hardening of hearts was
only to occur until a specific time.
Christian:
The fact that Jesus taught senior truths to his apostles in
private does not mean he kept them secret from others.
Commentary:
"Senior" truths?
This attempts to create various levels of truth and ignores the
fact that Jesus deliberately used parables to disguise the
truth.
Jesus claimed the parables were used so that some people would not
understand the truth.
Luke 8:10
And he(Jesus) said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they
might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Jesus did not disclose the truth to all of the people as that
would have ruined the very purpose for him using parables in the
first place.
Obviously, he did keep the real meaning secret from the public.
Christian:
As he(Jesus) said, others needed to extract those truths from
parables he taught in public.
Commentary:
How was a listener supposed to extract the truth from an
intentionally misleading statement?
Christian:
This is the equivalent to teaching kindergarteners versus
instructing college freshmen. It would be inappropriate to assert
the college teachings are secrets. They simply would not be
taught in a kindergarten forum, just as kindergarten-level truths
would not be taught in a college forum.
Commentary:
This analogy inaccurately assumes that Jesus used parables as
type of "minor" truth that was designed to accommodate
a lower level audience.
Jesus clearly stated that parables were used to public audiences
to keep them confused and not
understanding.
How does intentional deception become classified as truth?
Using this "senior" truth type of rationalization
spawns an interesting analogy for modern times:
The officers of the famous Enron company revealed
"senior" truth to corporate insiders while revealing
minor truth(i.e. deceptions) to the investing public in the form
of bogus financial statements.
The officers of the Enron company weren't really deceiving their
stockholders, they were simply employing a lower level truth to
match the public audience.
Christian:
It is wrong to equate public and private with open and secret,
respectively. They are not one and the same.
Parables he taught openly, both in public and in private. He did
not hide truth from anyone, either in public or private.
Commentary:
This once again ignores the fact that Jesus stated he used
parables to confuse people.
Since Jesus stated that he used parables with the express intent
of keeping people confused, he did hide the truth from
those not privy to the meetings where he explained the real and
correct meaning of them.
Matt 13:10-11
And the disciples having come near, said to him, `Wherefore in
similes(parables) dost thou speak to them?'
And he(Jesus) answering said to them that -- `To you it
hath been given to know the secrets of the reign of
the heavens, and to these it hath not been given,
Only special people were given the secret of the truth, and they
were given this information in private.
Christian:
However, he did not venture publicly into matters that would
surely be misunderstood by a fleeting, ignorant, and unprepared
public, but which he had spent years preparing his immediate
followers to understand.
Commentary:
Since Jesus stated that the messages he gave in public were
designed to confuse some people so that they would not
understand, Jesus most certainly did involve himself in
public misunderstanding.
Jesus did not reveal the truth to the public and reserved it and
other secrets for his immediate associates in private.
Matt 13:34-42
All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and
without a parable spake he not unto them:
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,
saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things
which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went
into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare
unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is
the Son of man;
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the
kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of
the world; and the reapers are the angels.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so
shall it be in the end of this world.
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do
iniquity;
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The secret teaching of the final solution, which involved violent
mass killings, was never revealed by Jesus to the public.
Only his immediate associates received this inside information
after Jesus had sent the crowds away.
The fact is that Jesus taught some things in secret despite
telling the high priest that he said nothing in secret.
Footnote:
A believer notified me regarding this essay and told me that my
facts are ignorant.
The following excerpts are some of the "facts" put
forth by the believer about this issue.
Believer:
Did Jesus say anything to the disciples that had a different
meaning than the parables He taught?
The meaning for both was the same.
Commentary:
The issue is not what the meaning was.
The issue is that Jesus told the high priest who questioned him
about his teachings that he always spoke openly to the world and
that he spoke nothing in secret(John 18:20).
As Jesus himself allegedly stated, the parables were meant to
confuse the common people and sustain their unawareness of the
truth.
Mark 4:10-12
And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve
asked of him the parable.
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these
things are done in parables:
That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may
hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be
converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
The real meanings were only given to select people.
Luke 8:9-10
And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might
not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Disclosure of the truth regarding the teachings was not an openly
practiced act.
Believer:
He(Jesus) repeated to His disciples the meaning in a way they
could understand, after they asked.
Commentary:
Such lessons were given in private and spoken of as secrets or
mysteries.
Truth hidden from the people was revealed in private sessions to
select groups.
Contrary to his testimony, Jesus did teach things in secret.
Believer:
Even though Jesus spoke different "words" at different
times to His disciples the message was identical.
The religious leaders were questioning Him in order to accuse Him
of conspiring against them and kill Him.
Nothing He said conspired against them.
Commentary:
This claim does not address the issue of the specific testimony
that Jesus gave.
Jesus testified that he always spoke openly to the world and
spoke nothing in secret.
Regardless of what "words" Jesus used in his
explanations to his disciples, speaking openly to the world would
have involved openly revealing the real meaning of the parables.
As Luke 8:9-10 and Mark 4:10-12 demonstrate, the
message via parables was intentionally used to confound some
people while enlightening others.
The enlightenment occurred when Jesus provided additional
information to a select group in a private setting.
The reasons why the religious leaders questioned Jesus are not
relevant to this particular issue.
The answer Jesus gave to the questions is the issue.
The religious leaders were in charge of determining if a teacher
was valid or not so it's not surprising that they questioned
Jesus.
Believer:
And all things He(Jesus) talked about in private were talked
about in public as well.
Commentary:
This claim contradicts the New Testament evidence.
In no case were the specific instructional teachings detailed in Matt
13:36-42 given to the public by Jesus.
Jesus never openly disclosed to the public who the sower
of good seed was in the parable.
Jesus never openly disclosed to the public what was in
store for the planet and its inhabitants from the sower of good
seed.
Believer:
On top of this, what He(Jesus) told the apostles in private; He
desired for them to share publicly.
Commentary:
This assertion renders a scenario with conflicting agendas.
Jesus may have desired the information to be shared after his
death.
However, the issue is not what he desired to have happen after
his death.
The issue is his testimony to the high priest about teachings
that he gave to the people while he was alive.
Since Jesus already stated that he intentionally used parables to
create unawareness of the truth, it would make little sense to
then desire his disciples to enlighten people of the truth by
sharing the secrets taught to them.
In light of the other secrets that Jesus instructed his disciples
to keep to themselves, there is little reason to assume Jesus
would desire full public disclosure of the teachings he had given
privately.
Believer:
What He(Jesus) spoke of privately had to do with their personal
development, it had nothing to do with what people did with His
message.
Are you going to say that Christ couldn't speak with His friends
in private?
Commentary:
Once again, this attempts to obfuscate and avoid the issue.
The issue is not if Jesus could speak to his friends in private.
The issue is the testimony that Jesus gave to the high priest
about his teachings.
Since the parables were intentionally used to keep
"outside" people from seeing the truth and being saved,
obviously the people were not supposed to take positive action
from hearing the messages.
And despite the attempt to portray the private teaching conducted
by Jesus in Matt 13:36-42 as being only a "personal
development" seminar, this privately taught lesson had everything
to do with the common people as their fate was directly connected
to the plans for the great scourge of the earth which was to be
directed by Jesus himself.
Believer:
In addition, Christ never asked anyone to conceal anything that
He said.
Commentary:
This also conflicts with the New Testament evidence as
concealment of revealed truth was frequently desired by Jesus.
Jesus explicitly told his inner circle not to tell others
some of the things he revealed to them.
Mark 8:29-30
And he(Jesus) saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And
Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.
And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
Matt 16:20
Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no
man that he was Jesus the Christ.
This ties into the earlier claim by the believer that Jesus
desired his disciples to publicly share information while he was
alive.
That speculation is rendered rather baseless in light of the
charge given by Jesus to his disciples that they tell no man of
him.
Believer:
But did He ask people to conceal things that He did? What things?
Commentary:
The transfiguration was another example of something to be kept
concealed from others.
Matt 17:9
And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them,
saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen
again from the dead.
Even demons were instructed by Jesus to conceal the truth.
Mark 3:11-12
And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and
cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.
And he(Jesus) straitly charged them that they should not make him
known.
The various assertions given by the believer, those that fail to
address the issue and those that run counter to the scriptural
evidence, do not effectively rationalize the problem.
Contrary to his testimony, Jesus did not teach openly to the
world as he claimed and did teach in private or secretly, which
he denied doing.
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