26. True. The True

 
Both ἀληθής and ἀληθινός are translated ‘true,' but not with the same sense. The difference may be seen in the two expressions that "God is true" (ἀληθής) in John 3:3333He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3:33); and "the only true (ἀληθινός) God" in 17: 3. The Latin language has two words showing the distinction, verax and verus, as in the Vulgate.
ἀληθής signifies that which is according to truth: "Let God be true!" in contrast to the falsehood of man, Rom. 3:44God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4); but there is no good word in English by which to translate ἀληθινός. In some passages no doubt ‘real,’ ‘genuine,' or the old English word ‘very,' might be used, as Wycliffe translated John 15:11I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. (John 15:1): "I am the verri vyne." But ‘very' would not suit in many places, as in "He that is holy, he that is true." Rev. 3:77And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; (Revelation 3:7).
Archbishop Trench observes "God is ἀληθής, (John 3:3333He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3:33); Rom. 3:44God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4); =verax) inasmuch as He cannot lie, as He is ἀψευδής, (Titus 1:22In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; (Titus 1:2)) the ‘truth-speaking’ and truth-loving God. But He is ἀληθινός (1 Thess. 1:99For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; (1 Thessalonians 1:9); John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3); Isa. 65:1616That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes. (Isaiah 65:16); =vents) very God, as distinguished from idols or all other false gods." He adds that ἀληθινός is not always the true as opposed to the false. Rather it is very often the substantial as opposed to the shadowy and outlinear: thus in Heb. 8:22A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. (Hebrews 8:2) we have the σκηνὴ ἀληθινή, ‘true tabernacle,' into which our great high Priest entered, implying that the one in the wilderness was only an earthly copy of that which had a most real existence in heaven. So too Christ is said to be τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθονόν, ‘the true light,' (John 1:99That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9)), though John the Baptist was also "a burning and shining light" (λύχνος,), chap. 5:35. Christ is also it ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή ‘the true vine' (chap. 15:1), not denying that Israel was God's vine, but implying that none but He realized the name to the full.
Summing up, the Archbishop says, "We may affirm of the ἀληθής that He fulfills the promise of His lips; but of the ἀληθινός, the wider promise of His name. Whatever that name imports, taken in its highest, deepest, widest sense—whatever according to that He ought to be ― that He is to the full."