Defending @RudyGiuliani's #Truth (#TruthIsNotTruth @MeetThePress) - #TheTruthWillSetYouFree #True #Truthiness #Truism #Truly

Yes, you remember Mr. (or is it Gov.? the way you call U.S. Presidents "Pres." for the rest of their lives) Rudy Giuliani–speaking about the possibility of President Trump's testimony before Congress–telling MEET THE PRESS "Truth is not Truth!"

I can't say for-sure what was on Giuliani's mind (mostly because there were probably so many things on his mind, it would take too long to explain how everything was somehow tied to the matter he was discussing), but I imagine the main thing was something like James 2:18: 'Faith without works is dead.'

That is: I can tell you I've done something in my past (telling The Truth), but 'my telling you' does not 're-do that past action' (e.g. I catch a fish; I will only have that one fish, no matter how many times I tell 'millions of people' (okay, 'dozens of people') that I caught that one fish).

That compels me to track 'the evolution of "True"—we start with its roots:

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The word "Truth (True, Truly)" has roots that mean "Be Firm, -Solid, -Steadfast (in Position, Form or Adjustment" (with noun-suffix (-th); Accurate, Correct ... Tree-eth). 

A "Truism" is "a Self-Evident truth" (like the ones from The Declaration of Independence: "... that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"). 

"Truthiness"–formerly meaning "Habit of Telling the truth"–is more-recently popular as meaning "Act- or Quality of Preferring Concepts- or Facts one Wishes to be true, rather than those Known to be true" (American Dialect Society "Word of 'the Year' (2005)").

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The current evolution/mutation of 'Truth'? I put it this way:

When you're young, you believe what your parents say because your parents say it; they say they're gone during the day in order to 'earn provisions' (making money to pay for food & shelter etc.).

You grow up learning that a) people don't usually lie about what they're doing, especially if no one else will lie for them (i.e. you can usually find somebody else who knows whether people were where they said they were).

"Truth" today is usually 'what you can confirm by the testimony of witnesses' ... or maybe 'what people heard from trusted witnesses (or -from what trusted people heard from trusted witnesses, or ... etc.)

That's the main reason they have those "begat by ... begat by ..."-sequences in the Old Testament---whatever else it may be, it's a series of witnesses.