It is graduation season once again, and that means a busy schedule for elite universities and colleges. Not only do our nation’s top educational institutions have to double-check transcripts, rosters, and facility plans, but they must jostle and vie to secure the most prestigious commencement speakers.

This year, Harvard garnered a great deal of attention by hosting actor Tom Hanks. Hanks, who received an honorary doctorate during his visit, movingly called for the class of 2023 to become lifelong participants in the battle for truth. Only truth and freedom, declared Hanks, can allow us to fulfill America’s promise and continue the perpetual effort to create a more perfect union.

The emphasis on truth, even in the glittering ambiguities that characterize modern treatments of the subject, was a shrewd choice for a university whose motto is veritas, or truth.

The famous seal of Harvard, a shield which today is emblazoned with three open books and that single word, Veritas, is full of history. Corydon Ireland, a staff writer for Harvard, wrote a fascinating article back in 2015 about Harvard’s storied seal.

In his article, Ireland noted that, while Veritas was adopted as a motto back in 1643, it would be a long time before it was featured on the school seal. In 1650, those who ran Harvard chose instead to use In Christi Gloriam, “For the Glory of Christ,” instead. This would be updated in 1847 to Christo et Ecclesiae, or “For Christ and the Church.” It was not until the 1880s that Veritas became the lone and lasting motto displayed on all official Harvard correspondence and legal documents. Something else, however, had also changed about the seal of Harvard. It was a change that could easily be missed.

The seal of Harvard features three books. In all modern versions of the seal, the three books are open and facing the viewer. However, this is not how the seal was originally designed. The original version consisted of two books open and facing the viewer, and one book turned over and unreadable.

There have been a number of interesting explanations of this fact, including the suggestion that this would have encouraged Harvard men to look at both sides of any question. However, there is another likely explanation. As Ireland writes:

"The open books represent the Old and New Testaments — the truth that any could read in the Bible. But the third book represented the yet unwritten truth of the future as the Puritans saw it: the book of truth that would be written by a second coming of Christ. …To the Puritans in Harvard’s seventh year, Veritas meant more than truth, or even divine truth. It meant 'fulfillment,' the truth of a second coming."

If true, this description would certainly fit the beliefs and love of symbolism that characterized the Puritans. It also serves as a good illustration of how the truth of the Gospel that we studied on Sunday is a truth that begins with the promises of the Old Testament, continues into the atonement of the New Testament, and looks forward to fulfillment in Christ’s return. Without that third book waiting to be revealed, the first two books lose their value (Paul’s subject this coming Sunday). Without a resurrection, then the veritas vanishes. With the resurrection, then the Gospel is indeed truth, and truth of the first importance.