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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: 33; and "the only true (ἀληθινός) God" in John 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: 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: 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: 7.
Archbishop Trench observes "God is ἀληθής (John 3: 33; Rom. 3: 4;
= verax) inasmuch as He cannot lie, as He is ἀψευδής (Titus 1: 2)
the 'truth-speaking' and truth-loving God. But He is ἀληθινός (1 Thess. 1: 9; John 17: 3; Isa. 65: 16; = verus) 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: 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 ἀληθινόν, 'the true light,' (John 1: 9), though John the Baptist was also "a burning and shining light" (λύχνος), John 5: 35. Christ is also ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή, 'the true vine' (John 15: 1), not denying that Israel was God's vine, but implying that none but He realised the name to the full.
Summing up, the Archbishop says, "We may affirm of the ἀληθής that He fulfils 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."