Epimenides was an ancient philosopher from the island of Crete. He once said: “All Cretans are liars,” which leads us to a paradox: If it is true that all Cretans are liars, then Epimenides the Cretan is lying. Therefore, it is false that Cretans are liars leading to the conclusion again that his statement is true.
Centuries before Epimenides, King David already made an even bigger generalization: 
– All men are liars” (Ps 116:11). Augustine of Hippo asked, “Is David telling the truth or is he lying? If it is true that every man is a liar, and David’s statement, ‘Every man is a liar’ is true, then David also is lying; he, too, is a man. But if he, too, is lying, his statement: ‘Every man is a liar,’ consequently is not true.”
The liar’s paradox shows that assessing the truth is complicated even in the theoretical world of logic, and all the more in our daily lives. Philosophers like Nietzsche teach that lying is a condition of man – that prevarication and self-deception are built into the structures of language and human thought. Psychologists have confirmed empirically that most people lie roughly twice a day. Further studies show that married couples lie to each other in 1 out of 10 conversations. College students lie to their mothers one out of every two conversations!
Interestingly, throughout Genesis, many stories involve prevarication between close relatives. As we read about Joseph’s revelation of his identity to his brothers after years of hiding his identity, we step back to wonder: Why does the plot of chapter after chapter, story after story in Genesis revolve around hiding and deception? Adam, Cain, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Yaakov and Rachel, Joseph – the greater the character, the greater was their disguise. What lessons are we to learn from this?
I would like to suggest an answer that draws from the history of crypto-Jews who had to hide their identity for generations, who lived with complex, mixed identities. Sometimes in order to survive in exile in a hostile environment, it is necessary to disguise oneself.
A few years ago, a school teacher in Mexico named Anna Rael who grew up Catholic found out that her name Rael was actually short for Yisrael. She then realized that her family’s custom not to eat pork because they were allergic and to eat flat bread during Lent were holdovers from her Converso past. They were unable to practice openly, but by hiding, they were able to maintain enough of their practice to be able to return to it more fully later on.
We can thus think of deception as a survival strategy when honesty is not an option. For example, when Jews have been oppressed and exiled. When a famine plagues the land of Canaan, and Abraham and Sarah must exile themselves to Egypt, Abraham passes off his wife as his sister in order to survive. Isaac and Rebecca use the same strategy when in Avimelekh’s court. Joseph in Pharaoh’s court, like Queen Esther later on, all have to disguise their identity in order to survive and gain enough power to help their people at their time of need.
Deception ensures survival not only because of exile, but in other cases as well. Lot’s daughters think the whole world is destroyed and intoxicate their father in order to repopulate the earth. Tamar makes good on her obligation to keep alive the name of her dead husband by dressing up as a prostitute in order to seduce Yehudah. And even Yaakov who also dresses up as Esau to receive his father’s blessing does so with the intention of ensuring the success of the continuity of Abraham’s covenant.
Are there cases in which one must prevaricate and deceive for the greater good? Yes, and that is one of the messages of Genesis. But does that mean this is ideal? Certainly not. We sometimes resort to dishonesty in difficult situations, but those lies also take their toll. Eventually, they can debase our language, our identity, and our integrity.
Therefore, when someone tells a lie or when we feel pressure to mislead someone else, we should think about not only the consequences of the lie but, more importantly, what that impetus to conceal actually reveals about that situation and that relationship. Lying, faking, and hiding are all red flags that point to a deeper problem. When a company needs to cook the books to stay afloat, it means the company is bankrupt. When a country can only survive on propaganda, it means it has lost its legitimacy. And when we need to fool ourselves and mislead those closest to us, it means that our homes are in dire need of repair.
Lies reveal an atmosphere of tension, danger, and a precarious future. We can only feel secure when we can confront the truth. The dramatic revelation of Joseph to his brothers and to all of Egypt is the successful culmination of the precarious and troubled past of his family living through famine, exile, and misdeeds. Had Joseph revealed himself when the brothers first came, it would have been a dead end due to the brothers’ guilt, shame, and fear.
Joseph instead surreptitiously arranges his brothers into the very same predicament they had been in years before when they left him to die in a pit. Would they now leave Benjamin, also Jacob’s favorite, to die in Pharaoh’s jail? Or would they act with brotherly love? Sure enough, Judah stepped up to the plate and showed his true colors as a brother and a leader who would sacrifice himself to do the right thing. Just as God must put Abraham through a test to reveal to Abraham something about himself, Joseph manipulates his brothers to test them and show them that they have changed.
We live in a time when we are witnessing the ingathering of exiles. We no longer need to hide our Judaism, no longer need to live like Conversos. We can display giant Hanukkiot (Menorahs) in public squares and walk as proud Jews in the streets. Sometimes, however, we need our white lies and secrets to get by. Sometimes they are justified and other times they are not. But they are never ideal. Like Epimenides’ paradox, our lies will always self-referentially catch up with us one way or another. The trick is to reconcile with the truth and break out of the paradox before we get caught up in a cycle of deceit.
As for David’s statement that all men are liars, I have to admit that I, too, may have dissembled by taking it out of context. The full verse states:
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– Because I was sorely afflicted, I said in my rashness, ‘All humankind is false.’
Suffering can turn us cynical but the Psalmist repents and remembers his faith in God whose seal is truth.
We already know how deceptions conceal our past. The more important question is what do lies reveal about our way forward, towards achieving reconciliation with our fellow man, with God and with ourselves?