Pilate’s cynical reply is infamous. “What is truth?”[6] After having Jesus scourged, Pilate answered his own question about truth when he said to Jesus, “Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?”[7] This is Pilate’s truth, Caesar’s truth, Cain’s truth, Satan’s truth—the will to shape the world by violent power. For the “great men of the world,” ultimate truth is the power to kill.
