The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!” They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
Isaiah 44:12-20
What is a lie? Well, I suppose the answer depends on who you ask. But most people who’ve thought it through would say something to the effect of, “anything done with the intent to deceive.” We generally don’t associate things with “lies” that are merely mistakes or knowledge deficiencies. We believe that a lie is an act done with intention.
But that’s not exactly how the bible uses the word. In fact, the Bible does not have “a word”. The Old Testament uses many words that, in English, we translate with the root “lie”. The New Testament revolves around the word ψεῦδος (from which we get the English “pseudo”). But the thing is, in both the Old Testament and in the New there is not necessarily the baseline idea that “intention to deceive” is necessary.
The New Testament, and the Greek Septuagint, level out the varieties of word choice that the Hebrew Old Testament provides, and these are leveled even more by English. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If we have one word that can do the duty of many others, then that word has flexibility and, while it requires nuancing on our part, it does help us see that there is a connection between those ideas. Let me give you an example. People often complain that in English we use one word “love” to describe our feelings for our children/ parents/ spouses as well as for pizza. People say that this is tragic because other languages have a variety of words to carry the differing weights of these feelings. But isn’t it good that English gives us the ability to say that while our “love” for pizza is different in both quality and quantity from our love for our wives – it’s not a wholly other category. Sure, pizza love is an inferior love, but it’s still (in the minds of English-speaking peoples) a love. Friendship love can be superior (at least in experience) to romantic love. My point is not to go on a word-study about love, but to point out that the variability of some English words isn’t a bad thing, it merely shows a notional connection.
But, back to the point. In English we commonly understand a “lie” to mean something like “deliberate deception”. But we use it in other ways. We don’t ONLY mean that. That may be the primary understanding, but not the only. We call things lies even if they aren’t INTENDING to deceive but are deceptive all the same. We also talk about things being lies that are simply incorrect.
The Bible has, however, a pretty broad understanding of what lying is. Basically, a lie is that which is not the truth. Now, that seems like a VERY low bar that makes an awful lot of things that we wouldn’t normally consider lies to be lies. Yet, this is the way the scriptures present this material to us. The Bible gives a fairly simple presentation. In the Biblical view there is truth and there are lies. Anything that isn’t truth is a lie. And this has massive implications. Today I’d like us to focus on one of the many issues that this shift in understanding can affect.
So, when we consider a lie, think back to the passage that we introduced this essay with. The key phrase describes the idolaters inability to recognize that an idol “is a lie”. The prophet sees an idol as a lie. Not the product of a liar. Not an item which represents a lie. But that it, in itself, is a lie. That the idol, by its very nature, is making a statement. The nature of the idol is to make a truth claim. And that truth claim is that the deity that the artifact represents (or is) is real. And God says that that’s a lie. Not that the belief is simply mistaken. Nor that the idol represents a God who is false. Rather the “thing in my right hand” is a lie.
Again, the Biblical view is that there is truth and there are lies and anything that doesn’t measure up to truth is a lie. You might not like this. You may say, “but what about honest mistakes”? Honest mistakes are obviously a play on words. You can say something false without knowing it’s false – or believing it’s true. You can be genuinely mistaken. But again, honest mistake or genuine mistakes: these are oxymorons. What matters is not whether the false thing came about with malice aforethought – what matters is whether it’s true.
Now, I grant, a deliberate lie is different from being mistaken or being ignorant or drawing an incorrect conclusion. Those are different. But it doesn’t make the mistake or ignorance or incorrect conclusion any less mistaken, ignorant, or incorrect. And I honestly am not suggesting a change in English language usage. I think that the distinction we draw is useful because it’s focused on the person’s motivation and not the content of the speech or action.
But the Bible is entirely focused on the content. The Bible cares whether the content is true or false. Now, defining “Truth” is no easy task. And defending that definition is even harder. And I’m not ready to go down that rabbit trail because that would take us very deep! So, for this essay we’ll skip the full definition and defense of the truth and assume that we all have a working knowledge of how the word “truth” is used in the Bible. That assumption is…risky, I know, but you gotta risk it to get the biscuit…here the biscuit is keeping this essay below 5k words!
So, to recap: The Bible treats the concepts of truth and lies differently than we do in America. This has implications. The main difference is that in Biblical theology truth and lies are not motive or knowledge-based, but based upon an assessment of the veracity of the word or deed or thing.
Now, one of the implications that this has is that in a thoroughgoingly biblical Systematic Theology we understand that lies can not only be contrasted with truth but with wisdom! In Acts 6 Stephen is silencing opponents to the Gospel with wisdom and so they respond with lies. When we consider truth and falsehood and wisdom and folly we’re not dealing with entirely separate categories, but rather we’re dealing with different ways of viewing the same thing.
Before you dismiss me and decide that my (not so) great learning is driving me mad, let me attempt to explain. In the Bible, truth is not simply something that corresponds to reality. Truth is a Person. And as much as I like the Correspondence Theory of Truth, it doesn’t really fit into a lot of the Bible all that cleanly – especially not in John’s literature. Truth is more than a matching game. Truth is, as Wolterstorff says, Truth is what meets the standard. It’s whatever measures up. Truth is the ontological description of something measuring up.
Wisdom, on the other hand is the intellectual description of knowing what measures up. And Righteousness is the practical or economical description of doing something that measures up.
Let me put it in a less confusing way. Truth is ontological. It describes things as they actually are. If I say that Jesus is Truth – I’m not saying that He does certain things (that’s economical) or that He KNOWS certain things (that’s intellectual) – rather that HE IS certain things. Namely, that Jesus, in His Person, meets the standard. Wisdom means that someone KNOWS what it means to measure up. So, if Jesus is Truly the Messiah because He fits all the prophecies about Messiah then ONTOLOGICALLY He IS Messiah. He, in His being, meets the standards. It takes Wisdom to know what the standards are and it takes Righteousness to live them out.
Now, I’ll admit that these descriptions aren’t as clean and crisp as I’d like them. This is a new idea for me that I’m experimenting with. But I think it helps clarify some tricky concepts. And it also explains why there is so much overlap between fools, liars and the unrighteous and the wise, honest and righteous. There should be. God is true, wise, and righteous and therefore those who become like Him will as well as those who hate Him will become the opposite.
But more than that these ideas are inseparably linked because of how this world operates. A lie is always foolish and folly is always a lie. Because folly – a failure to know the standard which results in unrighteousness which is a failure to live up to the standard – not only doesn’t know the standard but it accepts another standard and that standard is a lie, because it’s not true, because it’s not the standard.
Now, if you have any brain cells left that haven’t been fried, then you’re cleverer than I am. I feel like I’m right on the edge of understanding this and I feel like it comes and goes. I often describe this feeling as grabbing a corner. I can’t hold it, but I can feel it and know it’s outline. I believe that there’s something here. I feel like I’m closing in on something meaningful, but I can only feel the corner, I can’t pick the whole thing up!
But in the end, I hope that this has provided you with something that might be helpful – as an insomnia cure if nothing else! But noodle on this – you might be the one with the breakthrough!