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How Does the Truth Really Set You Free?

Britt Mooney Contributing Writer
Updated Jun 08, 2021

Jesus states in John 8 , “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

It sounds nice with words like truth and freedom, but there’s an implication within what Jesus says that confronts us at our very core. At the present, we are slaves. We are bound. We aren’t free.

What follows in John 8 is disturbing to our ideas about ourselves and our identity (as Jesus disturbed the Jews that originally heard it), which are the most difficult truths to address, yet Jesus is explaining what it takes to be set free. To be made free and live in freedom.

What Does the Truth Shall Set You Free Mean?

Beginning in John 8:12, Jesus teaches in the Temple treasury , beginning with the declaration that He is the light, and the people walk in darkness. As happens throughout the Gospels, the Jews question Him.

It’s like they’re having two different conversations. We’ve all been in that situation, haven’t we? One side can’t seem to make out what the other is saying, their perspective, even though they are using the same language, and there’s no communication.

This is what happens here. The teaching continues, and Jesus makes the two different perspectives clear—“I’m from above and you’re from below.” (v.23) Jesus is from Heaven and they are from the Earth, this world of corruption and death.

Because of the vastly different perspectives (can’t get any further apart), the Jews are more confused and ask an important question—Who are you?

Jesus had already answered that question of identity—He is the Son of God. Jesus then tells them that they will understand who He is when He is lifted up on the cross . When He is killed.

Many walked away at that point. Others, however, began to believe in Him.

To those who believed, He took it a step further. “If you follow my teachings, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Why Does the Bible Care so Much about Truth?

In Western civilization, we often define truth as a set of ideas or beliefs, a philosophy. We are then educated in that philosophy and hold others to those perspectives. We are subject to truth.

Ultimately, the scripture describes truth as a person, God. Truth or morality aren’t things that God must follow or can be subject to. Nothing is above Him. God, as a person, is the foundation of reality and truth, what is right and holy. Therefore, we can’t know the truth in an intellectual sense. We must experience it, which is why the word used in “knowing” God is one of an intimate relationship (much like Adam “knew” Eve and she had a kid).

Since Truth is a Person, this explains why relationship is paramount, the source, and the goal of salvation . Because relationship is everything, what we believe about God (doctrine, theology) becomes important , much like if I say I have relationship with my wife and describe her as a short, blue-skinned man, others who know her would question whether I have a relationship with her at all. And they would be right.

The Bible is the story of the Father reconciling all of creation back to Himself through the Son. The focus of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation is the person of God. God is defined as life, the way, the light, and more. Truth places us in line with those things. We can only have relationship with God, and worship Him, in spiritual truth ( John 4:24 ). Lies will do the opposite —place us in darkness and death.

What Does the Bible Say about Truth Shall Set You Free?

The Apostle John writes in chapter 1 of his Gospel that Jesus is the “Logos,” often translated as the Word, a philosophical term of his time related to truth and how people should live, confronting the Hellenistic culture, the roots of our modern Western civilization. Not to leave Jews out, John says that Moses brought the law, but grace and truth came through Jesus. They need a different source, too.

Just before His death, Jesus declares He is “the way, the truth, and the life” ( John 14:6 ). The Holy Spirit is the “spirit of Truth” ( John 16:13 ), James talks about how we are from the “Word of Truth” ( James 1:18 ). We can walk “in Truth” ( Psalm 86:11 ). The Son of God reveals the Father ( John 17:25-26 ) so we can know God and live in the God who is truth.

Just as God is known as the personal embodiment of Truth, the Devil is the “father of lies.” His first interaction with humanity led them into action based on a lie, to death, and corrupted the whole of creation with that event. There are two fathers, and we belong to either one or the other. That is where we get our identity. We have all been born in a world corrupted by the father of lies, and in participating and believing those lies, we are bound to what lies produce—fear, pride, sin, hate, and death. No matter how we dress it up with luxury, entertainment, or religion, it doesn’t matter. We are slaves to the lie with no hope of any way out, no escape, our end determined.

Add to this that everything we see is bound to the same corrupted world, temporary, doomed to destruction, like the Jews in John 8 , we can’t comprehend the Heavenly realm, the joys, the riches, the completeness, the love, the grace. We’ve had no experience with it. And we are unable to get from here to there.

It took a supernatural, sacrificial, and extravagantly loving act to give us another option at all. God came here.

How Can the Truth Set Us Free?

Back in John 8 , Jesus tells the Jews that “believe in Him” that they will know the truth, and the truth will set them free.

These Jews that “believe in Him” start to argue. “Hey, what do you mean? We’ve never been slaves of anyone.”

Their response: “Abraham is our father.”

Lie number two. Jesus explains that if Abraham was their father, then they would obey like Abraham did, believe in Jesus as he did. They don’t, so they have a different father. “Your real father.”

They continue arguing. “God is our father!”

Lie number three. Jesus reveals, “The Devil is a murderer, and you are doing what he did, trying to kill me. The Devil is your father.”

At the end of the chapter, Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” I am—Yahweh. He declared himself as God. As confirmation on the difficulty in challenging someone’s identity, the Jews (the “chosen people of God”) picked up stones to kill Jesus. Which is what He said they would do.

The words “set free” have an added meaning. It also means the truth will make us free . Make. Create.

“You must be born again,” Jesus says to Nicodemus in the middle of the night ( John 3:3 ). You have to be born of the Spirit instead of this world (3:6).

Once we repent and are born again, we are in Christ, and our identity has radically shifted from the lie to the Truth. Our fatherhood has changed. We have died to the Devil as father, and now we have been born from God.

We now have a new Father.

The problem of bondage is not solved with a new philosophy or a worldly government or religious tradition. It goes way deeper than that. The problem is our very nature, our very identity. Jesus says that while the religious tradition tells you not to kill or commit adultery, His commandment is to stop hating or lusting ( Matthew 5:21-28 ). But who can do that? We intrinsically know that’s impossible as we are.

Jesus also says, dealing with Jewish food requirements, that it’s not what goes into the body that defiles us but what comes out of the heart ( Matthew 15:11 ). We’re already unclean inside.

Even if we knew the right thing to do, we couldn’t do it ( Romans 7:15 ). We aren’t basically good people that need a slight attitude adjustment. The Bible is clear. Our source is one of rebellion and selfishness and all that extends from that. God gave His standard in the Law and the people were unable to keep it, not because the Law was wrong but because it depended upon the strength of humanity to perform it ( Galatians 3:19 ). We can’t.

We need a different nature, which comes from a different source. Not an impersonal source but a relational, intimate, loving Person as a Father. A good Father. We can’t just be shown what free people do (that’s religion), we must be empowered to do them (that’s the New Covenant, Ezekiel 36:26 ).

To break from the bondage of sin, hate, fear, pride, death, and destruction, we must be made free. We must be given a new perspective to see the God who is Spirit as well as the grace and power to follow Him. We must die to our old life, lose our life for the sake of Christ to truly find it.

We must be born again.

Paul in Romans teaches it like this: we are born from the first Adam, a whole race of people bound to that corruption. Jesus comes as a Second Adam, a new race of people born of God ( Romans 5:12-21 ). That’s quite a change.

We were born of this world and could only make worldly choices. No matter how we mix it with wealth or entertainment or religion, it’s still corruption. Our righteousness was “filthy rags” and worthless ( Isaiah 64:6 ). Once we are reborn from Heaven, we can make Heavenly choices. We can choose courage over fear, humility over pride, love over hate, integrity over division, peace over chaos, forgiveness over vengeance, generosity over greed, life over death. It was impossible before. Now, with God and His Spirit within us, it is who we are, our new identity, the New Creation ( Galatians 6:15 ).

That’s freedom.

We have been made free from within (where it matters) to live as Christians (literally, little anointed ones, little Jesuses) on the Earth, to walk with a loving Father Who is Truth, no longer bound to the things that will destroy us, and declare His love and invite others into that freedom full of joy and peace.

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What does it mean that “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32)?

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John 8:32 Meaning of And the Truth Will Set You Free

John 8:32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Explanation and Commentary of John 8:32

In the prior verse, Jesus tells those who have begun to believe in him that if they hold to his teaching, they are really his disciples. Then they will know the truth. They believed that he was who he said he was. Their belief would be put into action by holding to his teaching and so being his disciples. A disciple is a student or an apprentice.

Believing in Jesus’ work on the cross to redeem and save us must then lead to discipleship if we are to be “set free.” In the verses that follow John 8:32, Jesus would be specific about the bondage to sin that holds down the people of the world. The only way to be set free is to believe in Jesus. The only way to truly believe and so “know the truth,” is to live out his teaching, becoming his disciples.

Breaking Down the Key Parts of John 8:32

#1 “Then…” When you have put Jesus’ words into practice by obeying his teaching you are a disciple. Only a disciple will be considered by Christ to be a true believer. To fail to put Jesus’ teaching into practice is to show yourself a practical unbeliever.

#2 “…you will know…” There is intellectual knowledge, and there is experiential knowledge. Jesus promises that if we try his way, we will have the latter. Scribes tell of what they have heard. Disciples preach of what they know. To live out the teaching of Jesus is to build faith and assurance.

#3 “…the truth,” Everything in this life and the next hinges on the truth. A follower of God must be a seeker and doer of the truth. There is an objective reality, and the wise will seek it out in order to live properly. The true seeker will find his or her way to God and will mine the depths of the truth in God’s light for eternity in heaven. It is all well and good to find “your truth” only insofar as “your truth” is the ultimate objective truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6).

#4 “and the truth will set you free.” If you live the truth, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free from slavery to sin. Sadly, many Christians allow the god of this world, Satan, to blind them to this awesome reality. They settle for going to church and praying a prayer, but being a true disciple takes some courage. The outcome of living the truth is always the right outcome, but there are always obstacles in the narrow path. These obstacles and overcoming them are part of what God uses to train us for freedom. Trust him and face the truth. Confess your sins and live in the light of God (Jn 3:19). Go free.

Bible Study on John 8:32

Expert Overview of John Ch. 1-12

Biblical Translations of John 8:32

NIV “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

NLT “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

ESV “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

KJV “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

NKJV “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

What Does 'The Truth Will Set You Free' Mean?

During Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, He made many statements that were cryptic, even to His closest disciples—statements that resulted in confusion, frustration, and even violence among the religious leaders.

In John 8 , Jesus provoked a conflict with the Jews that ended with an attempt to stone Him. He said to them, “…‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ ” ( John 8:31-32 ).

What Exactly Is 'The Truth'?

Pilate asks Jesus a poignant question in John 18:38 . "What is truth?" Philosophers have wrestled with this concept for millennia. How do we properly define truth?

According to the Matthew Henry commentary, truth comes from God , first and foremost. "The truth both heals and nourishes the hearts of those who receive it. The truth taught by philosophers has not this power and effect, but only the truth of God." Secondly, truth heals and nourishes. When we know the truth about something, we can begin the process of healing and growth. It also has a nourishing effect. Have you ever noticed when you turn the pages of Scripture that you feel your heart has revived, especially when you stumble across a new truth? Because God's words, the voice of truth, restore and replenish the hearts of men.

Matthew Henry continues to weigh in on truth , "First, The truth which Christ teaches tends to make men free, Isa. 61:1 . Justification makes us free from the guilt of sin, by which we were bound over to the judgment of God, and bound under amazing fears; sanctification makes us free from the bondage of corruption, by which we were restrained from that service which is perfect freedom, and constrained to that which is perfect slavery. Gospel truth frees us from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and the more grievous burdens of the traditions of the elders. It makes us free from our spiritual enemies, free in the service of God, free to the privileges of sons, and free of the Jerusalem which is from above, which is free. Secondly, The knowing, entertaining, and believing, of this truth does actually make us free, free from prejudices, mistakes, and false notions, than which nothing more enslaves and entangles the soul, free from the dominion of lust and passion; and restores the soul to the government of itself, by reducing it into obedience to its Creator."

In essence not only does truth come for Truth (God himself) and nourishes us, but it frees us in a number of ways. It frees us in a justification sense. When we know the truth of the Gospel, and we commit ourselves to a saving relationship with the Lord, it frees us from the bondage of sin. But it also frees us from anything that entangles such as prejudices and untruths.

What Is Knowing the Truth?

We are given two important pieces of information about this freeing truth:

Claiming belief is not the same thing as knowing the truth.
Knowing the truth is dependent upon “really” being a disciple of Christ and walking in obedience.

These Jews had been listening to Jesus speak, and John records that they “had believed Him” ( John 8:31 ). But Jesus took it a step further, applying the test of true discipleship: obedience. Because how can we truly believe what Christ says and who He is and not obey? The first step to being set free is to not simply knowing the truth but to believe and obey it.

Several chapters later, John records another profound statement from Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” ( John 14:6 ).

“The truth” is more than knowledge about Christ; it is Christ Himself.

Then you will know Me , and I will set you free. To know Jesus is to know the truth of the Gospel.

Set Free From What?

The second part of Jesus's statement is that "the truth will set you free". To the Jews, freedom meant liberation from their Roman oppressors. In fact, many thought that the Messiah would come as a conquering king for that express purpose.

The mistake is understandable. A conquered people waiting for a Messiah would expect freedom in that sense to be part of the plan. Especially when a prophecy regarding the Messiah reads:

Is it Possible to Know What the Will of God Is?

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” ( Isaiah 61:1 ).

Today, many people believe freedom is the right to do whatever they want, subject to no governing authority outside of their own whims.

Both ideas miss the concept of true freedom altogether, and the Jews missed it again here in this conversation with Jesus.

“We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be set free’?” ( John 8:33 )

Jesus didn’t leave them to wonder long but explained Himself in the very next verse: “…everyone who practices sin habitually is a slave of sin” ( John 8:34 AMP).

John Piper elaborates on this slavery: “First, sin enslaves us by producing compelling desires…And the second way sin enslaves is that it eventually damns us…Jesus alone can free us from these two kinds of slavery: the domination and damnation of sin.”

And that is the freedom Jesus is talking about here. Not political freedom, not even physical freedom, but spiritual freedom.

Our sin nature means we have sinful desires that claim our attention and govern our decisions—desires that will ultimately lead to physical and spiritual death. There is no freedom on that path; any liberty we think we have is an illusion meant to discourage us from seeking the real freedom that only Christ can give.

- Freedom from the impossible task of satisfying the law. - Freedom to genuinely do what we want to do because our desires are aligned with God’s. - Freedom to serve God and please Him.

A Biblical Example of Truth and Freedom

At the beginning of this same chapter in John, Jesus encountered a woman who had been caught in the very act of adultery and brought before Him for judgment ( John 8:1-11 ). The scribes and Pharisees were hoping to trick Jesus into saying something they could officially accuse Him of, but He (as always) maintained control of the situation and turned it into this beautiful picture of spiritual freedom.

When they reminded Jesus that the Law required she be stoned, His response was simply, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” ( John 8:7 ).

This simple declaration reminded these religiously learned men that they were all living under the same bondage to sin as the woman.

When her accusers had all slunk away, Jesus spoke two things to her:

“Then neither do I condemn you.” (Freedom from sin’s damnation)
“Go now and leave your life of sin.” (Freedom from sin’s domination)

He freed her from the derision of her accusers, the condemnation of the Law, and the domination of sin. We’re not told what happened to her after this, but I don’t believe for a moment that her life was ever the same.

Jesus Christ, the truth, frees us from the damnation of sin and the power it has over our lives, just as He did for this woman and countless others. And “…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” ( John 8:36 ).

A Prayer to Know The Truth That Sets You Free

Dear Lord, I praise You for Your holiness . All Your ways are good, right and true. In our unfaithful world, only You offer us the truth. Open my eyes to understand Your truth and apply it to my life. I pray for a renewed love for Your Holy Word, where the truth that sets us free is found. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.'

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"The Truth Will Set You Free" - What it Means & Why Jesus Said It

You may have heard this saying in an academic setting before; “the truth will set you free ” could certainly apply to learning and gaining new knowledge. However, the original intent of this phrase refers to a spiritual freedom from the bondage of sin. Let’s explore what truth means for us from this Bible passage.

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father’" ( John 8:31-38 ).

What is Truth?

Truth is defined by Merriam Webster as the actuality of things or events, fact, or spiritual reality. Other definitions of truth have to do with sincerity in action or character, while others literally refer to God. The opposite of truth, then, is lies, falsity, fiction, and falsehood. No matter how it is viewed, truth bears the fruit of trust, and many of us spend our entire lives looking for it. The intrinsic desire for truth is what gives us that deep, personal longing to answer questions like “what is my purpose,” “who am I,” or “who do I serve?”

Who said “the truth will set you free” in the Bible?

John 8 begins with the story of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees bringing in a woman caught in adultery. They have her stand in front of a group while they announce her sin, and state that per the law of Moses, she should be stoned. In response, Jesus begins writing in the sand with his finger, and then says, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” People began disbanding from the group, while only Jesus remained. He asks the woman if anyone had condemned her yet, and when she says no, he tells her to “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

This led to dispute of who Jesus actually was. He explained to the Jewish people that he was not of this world, and that he is only doing what the Father taught him. In John 8:31-32 , Jesus said (to those who believed Him), “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free .”

What is the context "the truth will set you free" and who heard it?

Ellicott’s Commentary expands on the context of this verse in this way; on “the truth will set you free” it adds that “truth and holiness are spoken of as correlative,” as read in John 17:17 . The verse says, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” At this time, people limited freedom to being free from slavery or Roman rule. But Jesus meant “truth” and “free” as far deeper things.

The commentary goes on to say, “Sin is the bondage of the powers of the soul, and this bondage is willed because the soul does not see its fearful evil. When it perceives the truth, there comes to it a power which rouses it from its stupor, and strengthens it to break the fetters by which is has been bound.” When Jesus said, “If you remain faithful to my teachings…” He was referring to the law that sums up all the law of the commandments as found in Matthew 22:37-40 :

“Jesus replied: ‘ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In summary, it says we should love God and love people. Carrying out the stoning of a woman in sin does not show a graceful, merciful love. The grace that Jesus offered her gave her an opportunity that most certainly raised her spirit to truth and gave a glimpse of spiritual freedom.

What does "the truth will set you free" mean for Christians today?

The truth, which will set us free, still applies the same way today. Although today we don’t seek safety from the corruption of the Roman empire, we still all suffer under the bondage of sin. Perhaps today we seek safety from debt, stress and anxiety, lack of discipline, or a number of other issues. If we are focused on these wordly needs, then we will likely limit a verse like “the truth will set you free” to the things we want or need. However, what Jesus taught us in John 8:32 hits our soul, not only our minds, and is greater than our emotions.

How we can live this out every day

There are several ways that we can shift our focus to the spiritual aspect of Jesus’ teaching. The first is focusing on how we can demonstrate the grace and loving kindness that Jesus shared with the woman caught in adultery. The teachers of the law that wanted to condemn the woman were living their lives in fear. They were in protection mode of the law. In that protection, they considered those who broke the law to be a threat to them. Do you feel that you protect yourself from people, or do you allow a graceful love to flow through you at any given moment?

The second way we can make an adjustment to live out a life of truth and freedom is simply by seeking God. We can start doing this by allowing ourselves grace from our own mistakes, resting in the truth of who we are through Christ. We are forgiven. We have been extended the precious gift of grace. To become closer to God, we must first allow this truth to be one within us. From there, we can absorb His word more fruitfully. As we become anchored in our identity with the Father, then we can finally abandon that old stance of viewing others as threats. After all, feeling so threatened shines light on how we attempt to take up our own lordship. Fear is born out of punishment, and perfect love has cast all of it out ( 1 John 4:18 ). It is our decision to leave it there. You can read more verses about fear here .

Today, imagine someone showing you the grace you so desperately seek. Or imagine someone showing you kindness despite anything you have done. Let that heal you, even if just for a moment. Practice this more and more each day as you begin to break off the bondage of fear. Receiving God’s grace, and then extending it beyond ourselves is precisely what Jesus intended to teach us when He said “the truth will set you free.” You are free indeed.

Kyle Blevins is the sole contributor to the blog, REDIRECTED, which focuses on rediscovering purpose through love. His broken life reached a turning point after being surrounded by positive people who believed he was capable of more. His passion is connecting with and encouraging those looking for a new beginning in life and in Christ. You can follow his blog at iamredirected.com.

Photo credit: Unsplash/KalVisuals

What The New Yorker Didn’t Say About a Famous Writer’s Anti-Semitism

Why are Alice Walker’s vile beliefs about Jews treated so gently?

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic , Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.

Whatever your views on “cancel culture,” one thing is certain: Search-and-rescue missions on behalf of the disappeared can take strange forms. Witness a 2020 New Yorker essay that was published online under the title “ How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor? ” The question suggested the possibility that something as vile as racism might be calibrated—and that O’Connor’s case had moved from the verdict to the sentencing phase. Was she un-racist enough that “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” could still be taught in English classes, or was she so racist that all copies of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” should be collected and destroyed?

But if you read past the title, the essay—by Paul Elie, a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs—turns out to be excellent, a model of the form. It neither shies away from an accounting of O’Connor’s sin nor treats her stories and essays as diminished by that sin. Elie invites us to do something difficult: to hold both the artist and the art in our minds at once.

It’s a tall order, because her opinions are vile. “You know, I’m an integrationist by principle & a segregationist by taste,” she wrote to a friend. “I don’t like negroes. They all give me a pain and the more of them I see, the less and less I like them.” As for James Baldwin, she said that he is “very ignorant but never silent.” James Baldwin— ignorant ! The statement is preposterous. “My question is usually, would this person be endurable if white. If Baldwin were white nobody would stand him a minute.”

Elie gives no quarter to the often-made argument that all of this is explained—and therefore mitigated—by the time and place in which she was born: “All the contextualizing produces a seesaw effect, as it variously cordons off the author from history, deems her a product of racist history, and proposes that she was as oppressed by that history as anybody else was.”

It’s loathsome; she is loathsome. But Elie turns the coin over and over in his hands, at every turn complicating the story. He makes a powerful summation: O’Connor’s words “don’t belong to the past, or to the South,” he writes. “They belong to the author’s body of work; they help show us who she was.”

T he New Yorker recently published an essay about a similarly complicated writer, Alice Walker. This one is by Lauren Michele Jackson, an assistant professor at Northwestern and a contributing writer at the magazine. The occasion is the publication of Gathering Blossoms Under Fire , a collection of Walker’s diary entries from 1965 to 2000, about which Jackson writes elegantly and often persuasively: “Pain, joy, spells of depression, unease, engagement, even disaffection—all are material. They’ll feed the writings; they’ll sustain the readings.”

The publication of a writer’s journals provides an opportunity to combine an assessment of the art with an accounting of the life, and the essay’s somewhat perplexing online title—“ Alice Walker’s Journals Depict a Writer Restless on Her Laurels ”—lets us know we’ll be hearing about Walker’s many achievements. The Color Purple was such an enormous success—the recipient of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, with more than 1 million copies sold in the first three years—that it tends to overshadow the rest of her work. But Walker is a prolific writer, with an oeuvre composed of novels, short stories, essays, and poetry.

Speaking of Walker’s poetry, here are two lines from her 2017 poem “ It Is Our (Frightful) Duty to Study the Talmud ”:

Are Goyim (us) meant to be slaves of Jews, and not only That, but to enjoy it?

“How Anti-Semitic is Alice Walker?” The New Yorker might have asked. The straightforward answer is very, very anti-Semitic.

As my Atlantic colleague Yair Rosenberg has reported , since 2012 Walker has promoted the ideas of a repugnant person, David Icke, the author of a book called And the Truth Shall Set You Free . The book, Rosenberg writes, “mentions the word ‘Jewish’ 241 times and the name ‘Rothschild’ 374 times. These citations are not compliments.” Icke suggests that the Jewish people helped pay for the Holocaust themselves (if it even happened; he thinks schoolchildren should be encouraged to debate this). He says that the KKK is secretly Jewish, and he seems to be a big fan of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion .

Read: Don’t cancel Alice Walker. Hold her accountable.

As recently as 2018, Walker praised And the Truth Shall Set You Free , during an interview with The New York Times . “In Icke’s books,” she said, “there is the whole of existence, on this planet and several others, to think about. A curious person’s dream come true.” Who knows how many people she has introduced to this terrible thing.

Walker is a fierce critic of the state of Israel, and has refused to allow a Hebrew translation of The Color Purple . She has rejected charges of anti-Semitism as attempts to silence her support for the Palestinians, but the argument that Walker’s issue is only with the Israeli government, not with the Jewish people, is specious. In that poem, she describes the Palestinians as just the latest examples of the victims of an “ancient” evil perpetrated “with impunity, and without conscience, / By a Chosen people.” This is hate.

The New Yorker essay is 4,000 words long, and only a few sentences, in the final two paragraphs, concern Walker’s anti-Semitism. Jackson presents And the Truth Shall Set You Free almost as a bit of sci-fi: “Icke’s thinking includes the theory that mankind has unwittingly been ruled by an intergalactic race of reptilians since antiquity.” Entirely true—but try to guess who most of the reptiles are. As for the troubling fact of Walker’s anti-Semitism, Jackson offers a Freudian explanation: “Having grown up in a place where conspiracies, racial and sexual, were daily realities to be reckoned with, Walker may have developed a belated hunger for more.” Weirder still is this sentence: “Walker, a proper boomer, seems also to have been diving deep into the brackish waters of YouTube.” The “OK Boomer” defense.

I didn’t know exactly which brackish waters she had been diving into, but I turned once again to “It Is Our (Frightful) Duty to Study the Talmud”:

I recommend starting with YouTube. Simply follow the trail of “The Talmud” as its poison belatedly winds its way Into our collective consciousness.

I have no intention of following that recommendation, but I know that videos that describe the Talmud as “poison” aren’t so much “brackish water.” Walker does not seem to feel that her beliefs need any defense, let alone apology. As far as I know, she has never backed down from her position. Last year, in the postscript to her new book, she wrote, “I have no regrets.”

H ere’s what I don’t understand , in the case of the New Yorker essays and in the broader sense: Of all the forms of hatred in the world, why is anti-Semitism so often presented as somehow less evil than the others? Alice Walker’s beliefs are every bit as repugnant as Flannery O’Connor’s. Yet even The New Yorker is willing to dismiss them as the consequence of boomerism, of the sorrow and oppression of her youth, of YouTube—as a late-in-life aberration. It is willing to print an assessment of And the Truth Shall Set You Free that describes it as promoting “anti-Semitic crackpottery.” Crackpottery ? That’s one way of putting it. I realize now that this phrase includes the only appearance of the term anti-Semitic in the essay. If you didn’t come to this essay with a preexisting understanding of Walker’s hateful ideas, I expect it would be very easy to read these sentences about her beliefs and not really know what they are.

Would The New Yorker publish an article on someone with vile beliefs about gays, for example, and never mention those beliefs until the very end—and then in such a coded way that a reader might miss them altogether?

It wouldn’t and it shouldn’t. So why is hatred of Jews treated so gently—and in The New Yorker of all places? Something is rising, and it’s happening right in front of us, and somehow we are all sleeping through the part when there is still time to step in. Last year, David Baddiel, a Jewish comedian from Britain, wrote a book, Jews Don’t Count , arguing that “a sacred circle is drawn around those whom the progressive modern left are prepared to go into battle for, and it seems as if the Jews aren’t in it.” Why? “There are lots of answers. But the basic one, underpinning all others, is that Jews are the only objects of racism who are imagined—by the racists—as both low and high status … somehow both sub-human and humanity’s secret masters.”

I’m also a “proper Boomer,” born in 1961, 16 years after the end of the Second World War. And like a proper Boomer, I read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl as a teenager. The opening entries made the deepest impression on me—how joyous Anne’s life still was. The book begins with the occasion of her 13th birthday—the presents and flowers from her parents, the plate of cookies she baked and shared with her classmates, the weekend viewing of a Rin Tin Tin film. But already the yellow stars have been sewn on, the curfews implemented. The danger is rising, rising.

The Franks had two daughters, Anne and her talented older sister, Margot. The family was forced into hiding when Margot was “called up.” I didn’t know what that phrase meant. It meant that she received a letter ordering her to leave her home and report to one of the camps. I had an older sister too, and she was also the smarter, more patient one. What if someone came for her? What would we do?

The Franks went into hiding, and almost made it to safety: They lived in the secret annex for two years, and weren’t discovered until August of 1944—less than a year before victory in Europe. The family was sent to Auschwitz, and then the sisters were moved to Bergen-Belsen. Within a few months they died there, and neither of them was ever again seen on the face of this Earth.

Never let anyone—not David Icke, not Alice Walker, not the editors of The New Yorker , not anyone, ever—try to convince you that this hateful ideology is less serious than any other.

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free – John 8:32

Meaning of John 8:32

The meaning of the verse , “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” is that truth is freeing and liberating. In the entire chapter, Jesus talks and answers various Jews’ and Pharisees’ questions. Their idea was to challenge Jesus and accuse Him of something. Jesus then tells some Jews who might have believed in Him, adding that if they were aware of the truth, they would be set free. The freedom Jesus is talking about is freedom from the bondage of sin. When one accepts Jesus as their savior, they receive salvation and are forgiven for their sins. This rescues them from their fate in hell, and hence are given a chance to go to heaven after death . Additionally, when one accepts Jesus, one also receives God’s love, protection, and providence.

Interpretations of John 8:32

The verse of John 8:32 is commonly used in quotes in churches and Christian groups. However, the verse is commonly taken out of context . Here are the examples.

Interpretation #1 Jesus’ teachings are not the whole truth

The interpretation of the verse, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” is that Jesus’ teachings are not the entire truth. The reader interprets the verse in a negative manner because he or she is unwilling to take the verse as the whole truth. Hence, most non-Christians are the ones who don’t believe that Jesus is the only son of God as they believe that humans, too, are made in God’s image. This understanding is as per the Bible in spite of the New Testament’s teaching, and the reader doesn’t accept Jesus as the whole truth through the modern religious perspective . Also, Judaism and Hinduism refute such beliefs as they have their own gods they worship and believe in. Additionally, the reader also believes that one cannot always tell the whole truth as it might get them in trouble and hence need to resort to white lies to protect themselves.

Interpretation #2 Non-Christians were meant to be slaves

The meaning of the verse, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” is that non-Christians were meant to be slaves to their addiction or circumstances. The reader believes that the truth Jesus is referring to is only acknowledged and believed by Christians as other region people worship other gods. Since Jesus refers to the “truth” as Him being the savior and God, He is implying that the non-believers will always be bonded to sin and hence become slaves of it. The Bible also claims that those who don’t believe in Jesus are destined to live sinful life and go to hell because of it. Hence, the reader understands that believers are meant to be free, and non-believers are always destined for hell.

Interpretation #3 Other religions spread lies easily

In this interpretation, the reader believes that besides Christianity, other religion spreads lie. In this verse as Jesus addresses a group of Jews who refused to believe in His identity. Thus, He implies that they are unaware of the truth. As Jews have their own version of the Bible and do not believe in Jesus, the reader understands that every other religion except Christianity, like Hinduism, Islam, etc., is constituted with lies. The Hindus claim to have millions of gods, and Islam worships Allah. Additionally, the Bible condemns worshipping false God, idol worship, and any other God except Jesus. In other words, each of the major religions considers another faith or belief as a myth that is based on false teachings.

Interpretation #4 The verse is about the truth and holiness of Jesus

The final interpretation of the verse, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” is that the holiness and truth of Jesus are the contexts of the verse. The reader understands that Jesus came onto the Earth in the form of a human to rescue people from condemnation to hell for their sins. He came to reconcile them with God and to give them a chance to believe in Him, which will, in turn, allow believers to attain heaven. When Jesus mentions “truth” He is talking about His holiness, although He was in human form, and about Him being the Son of God. Additionally, there were Jews who did not believe in Him and tried to trap Him in their questions to get him killed. However, Jesus was the son of God, and this is the truth they were not willing to believe as they thought He was cheating people with His stories .

Historical background of John 8:32

The Book of John was written by John the Evangelist. Similar to the other three gospels, John covered the events of Jesus’ birth, death, works, teachings, and redemption. The gospel was written between AD 70-110. The eighth chapter contains various incidents where there is a dispute over Jesus’ testimony, a dispute over Jesus’ identity, and His claims about Himself. The chapter largely focuses on Jews attacking Jesus with different questions in order to catch Him in a lie or accuse Him of some crime. The thirty-second verse is Jesus telling the Jews who believed in Him that if they knew the truth, it would set them free. The truth He is referring to is His identity and what He is on Earth for.

Literary Devices of John 8:32

The verse of John 8:32 is a statement commonly used. However, there are some significant literary devices that can be found in verse. Here are a few examples.

Assonance – The verse has a repeated use of vowel sounds. However, they are not used in quick successions. For example, the sound of /a/ and the sound of /u/ in ‘ And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free ’.

Consonance – There is a good use of consonant sounds in repetition without quick successions. For example, the sound of /th/ and the sound of /n/ ‘ And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free ’.

Hyperbole – The verse is also a good example of hyperbole as the speaker , Jesus, is exaggerating the role and importance of truth.

Personification – In this verse, ‘truth’ appears to be personified, as if truth can perform an act of releasing someone from bondage.

Theme – The major themes of John 8:32 are honesty, faith, and obedience.

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Alice Walker’s Terrible Anti-Semitic Poem Felt Personal — to Her and to Me

When I first read Alice Walker’s The Color Purple , I leaned into every word, inhaling Celie’s tragic and triumphant story. In Celie, I felt the presence and pain of my female family members brought up in rural Alabama. In Walker’s unflinching descriptions of misogyny, domestic violence, homophobia, and incest, I saw an open accounting of issues buried deep within the larger southern black community — and within my own family.

Above all, I was drawn into The Color Purple because it was haunted by ghosts — the ghosts of Alice Walker’s past. Eloquently and bravely, she was able to confront generational trauma by telling a universal tale that still felt faithful to her own story. And it was Walker’s ability to throw open the shutters and allow her ghosts — our ghosts — into her writing that made it so revelatory. It cemented her standing as an acclaimed novelist, a civil-rights icon, and a formidable thought leader in the field of black feminism.

That changed abruptly two weeks ago, after the New York Times invited Walker to list her favorite books in its weekly “ By the Book ” column. She took the opportunity to promote David Icke’s And the Truth Shall Set You Free , which contains some of the most hateful anti-Semitic lies ever to be printed between covers. As excerpted in the Washington Post , Icke’s book alleged that a “small Jewish clique” had created the Russian Revolution and both World Wars, and “coldly calculated” the Holocaust to boot. Icke has also accused Jews (among others) of being alien lizard people. After a week of criticism, Walker doubled down in her assessment of Icke’s indefensible work, calling him “brave” and dismissing charges of anti-Semitism as an attack on the pro-Palestinian cause.

It’s chilling to think that such an acclaimed novelist could regard Icke’s work as “a curious person’s dream come true,” but it turned out that Walker’s endorsement wasn’t an isolated deviation. Readers soon unearthed her poem “It Is Our (Frightful) Duty to Study the Talmud ,” published on her website in 2017, which confirmed that Walker had been indulging in virulent anti-Semitism, and that it permeated not just her thinking but her work.

The ghosts in The Color Purple helped me to better understand my own identity and the suppressed history of my ancestors — a journey I’m constantly engaged in as a black Jewish woman. But the ghosts in “It Is Our (Frightful) Duty” leave me with more questions than answers. How did Walker’s curiosity curdle into paranoia? How was her commitment to improving the human condition twisted into support for genocide apologists? How could the artist who helped America to better understand black women use her writing to promote the oppression of another group?

In her essay, “The Black Writer and the Southern Experience,” Walker writes that “an extreme negative emotion held against other human beings for reasons they do not control can be blinding. Blindness about other human beings, especially for a writer, is equivalent to death.” Lately it seems that Walker has willingly allowed herself to be blinded. “It Is Our (Frightful) Duty” is a terribly written poem filled with terrible things. It oozes deep paranoia, defensiveness, and rage. In every single way, it’s ugly .

The “poem” utterly fails as poetry. It isn’t lyrical. Its lines and stanzas are choppy and graceless. Each stanza seems to end with an aggressive exhale, the kind that a person expels when they finish purging the awful thoughts that consume them. In some places, it reads like a rambling lecture delivered by a tenured professor who isn’t afraid to offend her students anymore. At other times, it reads like a Breitbart article with line breaks. There is no artistry here, but there is plenty of trauma.

Walker writes that we must examine the “root” of our broken world. For her, the rabbinical commentaries in the Talmud are this root. She claims that the Talmud has provided justification for Jews making slaves of goyim (non-Jews), which world history proves to be untrue. She also claims that the Talmud permits the rape of young boys and 3-year-olds, which is a misinterpretation often used to justify anti-Semitism. Walker is unequivocally wrong about the root of the world’s evil. But how should we begin to search for the root of Walker’s hatred? What ghosts lurk within her stanzas?

I have a deep abiding love for black women and all that we do. Because of that love, I feel betrayed by Walker, and like all scorned lovers, I find myself consumed with a need to understand why. Guided by a singular question ( What the fuck happened? ), I spent Christmas buried in her writings, trying to understand how Walker could turn on women like me.

The opening of the poem speaks of a male friend, a “Jewish soul,” who accused Walker of anti-Semitism because she didn’t support the state of Israel. Walker refers to this anonymous friend with a great deal of intimacy; charged with anti-Semitism, she herself reacts like a lover betrayed. When she mentions the house that they shared in Mississippi — “where black people often assumed he was a racist” — it becomes clear that she is referring to her ex-husband.

In 1967, Alice Walker married a young Jewish civil-rights lawyer named Mel Leventhal. Their interracial marriage — the first such legal union in the state of Mississippi — was still illegal in Walker’s home state of Georgia at the time. Leventhal’s mother was also deeply opposed to the union, and his other family members didn’t allow Alice to attend family events. “Leaving no question about how she felt about her son’s marriage to a shvartse (a pejorative Yiddish term for a black person), Miriam Leventhal sat shiva for her son, mourning him as dead,” Evelyn White writes in Alice Walker: A Life . A source who knows the family told me that Mel preferred to ignore rather than confront his family’s bigotry. This caused Walker to feel increasingly isolated and resentful. The marriage ended in 1976, after the pair had one daughter together, named Rebecca.

When writing of Mel in her essays, Walker links him inextricably to his Jewishness, as well as his occupation as a lawyer. Even when they are not arguing (frequently, according to her) about the abuses against Palestinians, each mention of him is some variation on “white Jewish lawyer husband.” Perhaps Walker is combining those disparate words — each a piece of his identity, yet each reductive — to make sense of his contradictions: How could he fight for the dignity of black people while allowing his white family to deny dignity to his wife and daughter? How could he be white, and yet not fully welcomed by white gentiles in Mississippi? How could he crusade for justice at home and dismiss her concern for Palestinians abroad?

I loathe the misogynist assumption that a woman’s faults must be the direct result of a man’s actions, but I find myself incapable of separating Walker’s fraught marriage from her hatred of Judaism. She doesn’t separate the two either. In her 2014 book, The Cushion in the Road , Walker writes about meeting an elderly Palestinian woman in the Occupied Territories. The woman accepted a gift from Walker, and then bestowed a blessing upon her, “May God protect you from the Jews,” to which Walker responded, “It’s too late, I already married one.”

It’s telling that Walker feels she should reference her marital strife in such a context, even as a joke. In both this comment and in her poem, she seems incapable of reconciling the conflicts inherent to Leventhal’s identity — conflicts that put a strain on their marriage. Instead of accepting that white Jews can both oppress and be oppressed, Walker leaps to blaming all Jews (and the Talmud) for all oppression.

Walker writes in the poem of trying to educate the “Jewish soul” on the topics of “dignity,” “justice,” “honor,” and “peace.” She sets off each of these words with quotation marks, casting doubt on whether Jews are capable of learning these values. Walker is quite proud of her subsequent epiphany, insinuating that those (like her younger self) who believe that any Jew can desire peace, justice, and honor know “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Walker’s fights with Leventhal are not the only ghosts in this poem. There is also Rebecca Walker, Alice’s daughter. Rebecca and Alice haven’t spoken in many years, and Rebecca has publicly denounced her mother for being neglectful during Rebecca’s childhood. “I came very low down in her priorities,” Rebecca wrote in 2008, “after work, political integrity, self-fulfillment, friendships, spiritual life, fame and travel.”

While Rebecca never addressed her mother’s anti-Semitism, she is known for publicly embracing her Jewish identity, most notably in her book Black, White, and Jewish . How must Rebecca be feeling right now? How would it feel to have the whole world discussing your mother’s hatred of your Jewish soul, your religious texts, your heritage?

As a black Jewish woman, I find the white Jewish community’s focus on black anti-Semitism hypocritical and distracting. Its negative impact is often exaggerated, and dwelling on it is counterproductive to racial justice and solidarity. But in an attempt to show compassion toward black people — especially black women — I sometimes find myself burying my own opinions about it at the expense of my soul. Recently, I was at an event where someone implied that Jews were naturally more conniving and exploitative. I shut down the conversation, but I wanted to flip the table in anger. What does that do to the soul of the black Jewish woman, who is often rejected by both the white Jewish community and — more rarely — by the sisters who are supposed to understand her?

In an interview for the PBS documentary “Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth,” Walker said she was hurt and confused by her estrangement with her daughter. “You bring children into the world. You love them with heart and soul,” she said. “But, as (author) Tillie Olsen told me, ‘You have your own children and do the best you can until they are able to get out in the world. And then the world takes over.’”

In the poem, Walker invokes her maternal status as a source of her authority over all of humanity. She refers to herself as an “elder” who went to Palestine to “do my job / of keeping tabs / on Earth’s children.” It’s a particularly defensive stanza in an already-paranoid poem. I feel that she is trying to convince herself that she has done her job as an actual mother. Her claim on the “Earth’s children” reads like a deflection from the one child she has, who is surely bothered by her mother’s hatred of Jews like herself.

Another source of the poem’s purported authority is age. Walker tells us that we will understand the evils of the Talmud as we get older. “We must go back / as grown-ups now, / Not as the gullible children we once were … It is our duty, I believe, to study the Talmud.” But Walker isn’t talking to us. It feels like a plea to her child. A plea for what? Understanding? Forgiveness? Permission?

I can understand Walker’s trauma: I live much of it. But I cannot understand how she could write such awful things. I understand that Walker experienced virulent anti-blackness from many in the white Jewish community — as I have — but I don’t understand how she could spin that off into a hateful conspiracy. I don’t understand why this poem was written. But I do understand that everything about it paints a picture of heartbreak. I see a person who has made terrible mistakes, and who is desperately trying to run away from them. I may not be able to forgive or excuse, but it is my frightful duty — as a black Jewish woman — to try to understand.

I spoke to a black Jewish woman who said that Alice Walker’s anti-Semitic “trolling” needed to be called out, but also that Walker was “a monster of [the white Jewish community’s] own making.” She warned that a failure to address such racism would push more people — notably, Jews of color — to this extreme. I believe this; I’ve already reported on the ways that racism was pushing black Jews away from the community . The impact of this dynamic on Walker’s work is supported by her description of her writing process in the essay “From an Interview”:

“All of my poems … are written when I have successfully pulled myself out of a completely numbing despair … Poems — even happy ones — emerge from an accumulation of sadness … I become aware that I am controlled by [the poems], not the other way around. I realize that when I am writing poetry, I am so high as to feel invisible, and in that condition it is possible to write almost anything.”

Still, I wonder how Walker could put the burden of her trauma onto us — black Jewish women. What is her responsibility to her daughter, and what is my responsibility to Alice Walker? Many of my black and Jewish friends refuse to even judge her. Perhaps it is I who know nothing, nothing at all.

I know that I will not cancel Alice Walker. I can’t erase the incredible work she created. I will continue to read The Color Purple and her other works. But I will never be able to rid myself of the ghost of this poem. It would be irresponsible and self-hating of me to do so. I will read and teach Walker’s work with love, but this poem will always be there, fluttering in the wind like a torn-out page of the Talmud.

alice walker
anti-semitism
the color purple

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John 8:31-59 English Standard Version

The truth will set you free.

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ( A ) “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will ( B ) know the truth, and the truth ( C ) will set you free.” 33 They answered him, ( D ) “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, ( E ) everyone who practices sin is a slave [ a ] to sin. 35 ( F ) The slave does not remain in the house forever; ( G ) the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet ( H ) you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 ( I ) I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard ( J ) from your father.”

You Are of Your Father the Devil

39 They answered him, ( K ) “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, ( L ) “If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now ( M ) you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth ( N ) that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, ( O ) “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have ( P ) one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, ( Q ) “If God were your Father, you would love me, for ( R ) I came from God and ( S ) I am here. ( T ) I came not of my own accord, but ( U ) he sent me. 43 ( V ) Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot ( W ) bear to hear my word. 44 ( X ) You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. ( Y ) He was a murderer from the beginning, and ( Z ) does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. ( AA ) When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 ( AB ) Whoever is of God hears the words of God. ( AC ) The reason why you do not hear them is that ( AD ) you are not of God.”

Before Abraham Was, I Am

48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and ( AE ) have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but ( AF ) I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet ( AG ) I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, ( AH ) I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never ( AI ) see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! ( AJ ) Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet ( AK ) you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never ( AL ) taste death.’ 53 ( AM ) Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, ( AN ) “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. ( AO ) It is my Father who glorifies me, ( AP ) of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ [ b ] 55 But ( AQ ) you have not known him. ( AR ) I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be ( AS ) a liar ( AT ) like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 ( AU ) Your father Abraham ( AV ) rejoiced ( AW ) that he would see my day. ( AX ) He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” [ c ] 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, ( AY ) I am.” 59 So ( AZ ) they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

John 8:34 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos , see Preface; also verse 35
John 8:54 Some manuscripts your God
John 8:57 Some manuscripts has Abraham seen you?

Cross references

John 8:31 : ch. 15:7, 8; 2 John 9
John 8:32 : 2 John 1
John 8:32 : ver. 36; Rom. 6:18, 22; 8:2; 1 Cor. 7:22; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 5:1, 13; James 1:25; 2:12; 1 Pet. 2:16
John 8:33 : ver. 37, 39; Matt. 3:9; [Luke 19:9; Rom. 9:7]
John 8:34 : Rom. 6:16-20; Titus 3:3; 2 Pet. 2:19
John 8:35 : Gen. 21:10; Gal. 4:30
John 8:35 : Luke 15:31
John 8:37 : ver. 40; See ch. 7:1
John 8:38 : ch. 3:32; 5:19; 6:46
John 8:38 : ver. 41, 44
John 8:39 : ver. 33, 56
John 8:39 : [Gal. 3:7, 9]
John 8:40 : ver. 37
John 8:40 : ver. 26
John 8:41 : [Hos. 2:4]
John 8:41 : Deut. 32:6; Isa. 63:16; 64:8; [ver. 47]
John 8:42 : [1 John 5:1]
John 8:42 : 1 John 5:20; [Heb. 10:9]
John 8:42 : ch. 16:28; 17:8
John 8:42 : ch. 7:28
John 8:42 : See ch. 3:17
John 8:43 : ch. 7:17
John 8:43 : Jer. 6:10; [1 Cor. 2:14]
John 8:44 : 1 John 3:8, 12; [ver. 23]; See Matt. 13:38
John 8:44 : Gen. 4:8, 9; 1 John 3:12, 15; [Rom. 5:12]
John 8:44 : [1 John 2:4]
John 8:44 : Gen. 3:4; 2 Cor. 11:3; Rev. 12:9
John 8:47 : [ch. 18:37; 1 John 4:6]
John 8:47 : [ch. 10:26]
John 8:47 : [ver. 41]
John 8:48 : See ch. 7:20
John 8:49 : ch. 5:23; [ch. 7:18]
John 8:50 : ver. 54; ch. 5:41
John 8:51 : ch. 5:24; 11:26
John 8:51 : See Luke 2:26
John 8:52 : [Zech. 1:5]
John 8:52 : ver. 51
John 8:52 : Matt. 16:28; Heb. 2:9
John 8:53 : [ch. 4:12]
John 8:54 : ver. 50
John 8:54 : ch. 13:32; 17:1; Acts 3:13; Heb. 5:5; 2 Pet. 1:17
John 8:54 : ver. 41
John 8:55 : ver. 19; ch. 7:28
John 8:55 : ch. 7:29; See Matt. 11:27
John 8:55 : 1 John 1:6
John 8:55 : ver. 44
John 8:56 : ver. 39
John 8:56 : See Matt. 13:17
John 8:56 : Luke 17:22
John 8:56 : [Heb. 11:13]
John 8:58 : See Ex. 3:14
John 8:59 : ch. 10:31

John 8:31-59 New International Version

Dispute over whose children jesus’ opponents are.

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, ( A ) you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ( B )

33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants ( C ) and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ( D ) 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ( E ) 36 So if the Son sets you free, ( F ) you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, ( G ) because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, ( H ) and you are doing what you have heard from your father. [ a ] ” ( I )

39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” ( J ) said Jesus, “then you would [ b ] do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, ( K ) a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. ( L ) Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.” ( M )

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.” ( N )

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, ( O ) for I have come here from God. ( P ) I have not come on my own; ( Q ) God sent me. ( R ) 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, ( S ) and you want to carry out your father’s desires. ( T ) He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ( U ) 45 Yet because I tell the truth, ( V ) you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. ( W ) The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Jesus’ Claims About Himself

48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan ( X ) and demon-possessed?” ( Y )

49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; ( Z ) but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” ( AA )

52 At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! ( AB ) Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? ( AC ) He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”

54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, ( AD ) my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. ( AE ) 55 Though you do not know him, ( AF ) I know him. ( AG ) If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. ( AH ) 56 Your father Abraham ( AI ) rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it ( AJ ) and was glad.”

57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, ( AK ) I am!” ( AL ) 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, ( AM ) but Jesus hid himself, ( AN ) slipping away from the temple grounds.

John 8:38 Or presence. Therefore do what you have heard from the Father.
John 8:39 Some early manuscripts “If you are Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then
John 8:31 : Jn 15:7; 2Jn 9
John 8:32 : ver 36; Ro 8:2; 2Co 3:17; Gal 5:1, 13
John 8:33 : ver 37, 39; S Lk 3:8
John 8:34 : S Ro 6:16
John 8:35 : Gal 4:30
John 8:36 : ver 32
John 8:37 : ver 39, 40
John 8:38 : Jn 5:19, 30; 14:10, 24
John 8:38 : ver 41, 44
John 8:39 : ver 37; S Lk 3:8
John 8:40 : S Mt 12:14
John 8:40 : ver 26
John 8:41 : ver 38, 44
John 8:41 : Isa 63:16; 64:8
John 8:42 : 1Jn 5:1
John 8:42 : S Jn 13:3
John 8:42 : Jn 7:28
John 8:42 : S Jn 3:17
John 8:44 : 1Jn 3:8
John 8:44 : ver 38, 41
John 8:44 : Ge 3:4; 4:9; 2Ch 18:21; Ps 5:6; 12:2
John 8:45 : Jn 18:37
John 8:47 : Jn 18:37; 1Jn 4:6
John 8:48 : S Mt 10:5
John 8:48 : ver 52; S Mk 3:22
John 8:50 : ver 54; Jn 5:41
John 8:51 : Jn 11:26
John 8:52 : ver 48; S Mk 3:22
John 8:53 : ver 39; Jn 4:12
John 8:54 : ver 50
John 8:54 : Jn 16:14; 17:1, 5
John 8:55 : ver 19
John 8:55 : Jn 7:28, 29
John 8:55 : Jn 15:10
John 8:56 : ver 37, 39; Ge 18:18
John 8:56 : S Mt 13:17
John 8:58 : S Jn 1:2
John 8:58 : Ex 3:14; 6:3
John 8:59 : Ex 17:4; Lev 24:16; 1Sa 30:6; Jn 10:31; 11:8
John 8:59 : Jn 12:36

James A. Garfield: 'The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.'

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

James A. Garfield once said, 'The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.' At first glance, this quote may seem straightforward - acknowledging the power of honesty and transparency in liberating oneself from the constraints of falsehood and deception. In essence, facing the truth, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it may be, eventually leads to freedom from the burdens of dishonesty and self-deception. However, the notion that truth can bring about misery before liberation introduces a profound philosophical concept worth exploring further.With this quote, Garfield touches upon the inner turmoil and emotional upheaval that often accompany the process of confronting the truth. The journey towards self-discovery and authenticity is rarely easy; it involves soul-searching, confronting one's fears and insecurities, and dismantling long-held beliefs or illusions. This process can indeed be painful and distressing as we grapple with our own vulnerabilities and face the harsh realities of our existence. The initial discomfort and disorientation caused by the revelation of truth can indeed make us feel miserable as we navigate through the maze of our own emotions and thoughts.However, the true essence of Garfield's quote lies in its underlying message of transformation and growth. The temporary misery experienced when confronted with the truth serves as a catalyst for personal development and positive change. It is through this period of discomfort and reflection that we gain insight into our authentic selves, unearth hidden strengths, and emerge stronger and more resilient in the face of adversity. The process of shedding illusions and embracing the truth ultimately paves the way for a deeper sense of self-awareness, clarity of purpose, and inner peace.To bring an unexpected philosophical twist to Garfield's quote, let's explore the concept of existentialism. Existentialism, a philosophical movement that emphasizes individual freedom, choice, and responsibility, resonates with the idea that the truth can be a source of discomfort before leading to liberation. Existentialist thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche believed that confronting the harsh truths of existence - such as the inevitability of death, the absence of inherent meaning in life, and the burden of individual responsibility - is essential for authentic living.In the existentialist view, embracing the truth, no matter how bleak or unsettling it may be, is a prerequisite for living a genuinely meaningful and fulfilling life. The initial misery and discomfort that accompany facing the truth are seen as essential aspects of the human experience, pushing us to confront our deepest fears and uncertainties and empowering us to make choices that align with our true values and aspirations. In this sense, the quote by Garfield aligns with existentialist philosophy, highlighting the transformative power of truth in leading us towards freedom and self-realization.In conclusion, 'The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable' encapsulates the profound journey of self-discovery, growth, and liberation that accompanies the pursuit of honesty and authenticity. By delving into the depths of our own truths, confronting our innermost selves, and embracing the discomfort that comes with facing reality, we pave the way for personal transformation and genuine freedom. Embracing the existentialist perspective further enriches the quote, emphasizing the importance of grappling with life's uncertainties and complexities in order to live a more purposeful and liberated existence.

S6, E20: The Truth Shall Set You Free

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May 15, 2024 (United Kingdom)
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