First, here's the passage:
"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed 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 practices 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; yetyou 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 (ESV)The phrase "the truth shall set you free" has been used out of its original context a lot in movie quotes or even just colloquially. We usually hear it as "honesty will set you free." But after reading it in context is that what it really means? What is this "truth" that Jesus talks about, it it "honesty?"
The word in the Greek is ἀλήθεια (alitheia). Ἀλήθεια means "the content of that which is true and this in accordance with what actually happened-'truth.'" "[It is] used to refer to the revelation of God that Jesus brings or, perhaps, to Jesus himself for what he actually is as the revelation of God." (Louw & Nida, 673)
Ἀλήθεια is much more than just honesty, it's the truth, the real revelation from God. Jesus is the ultimate revelation from God, more than any scripture, more than any prophecy, more than any other prophet, Jesus is God in the flesh. We could (and maybe sometimes should) read this as "Jesus will set you free."
