Reference: Witness
American
One who testifies to any fact from his own personal knowledge. Under the Mosaic law, two witnesses under oath were necessary to convict a person charged with a capital crime, Nu 35:30; and if the criminal was stoned, the witnesses were bound to cast the first stones, De 17:6-7; Ac 7:58. The Greek word for witness is MARTYR, which see. The apostles were witnesses, in proclaiming to the world the facts of the gospel, Ac 1:8,22; 2:32; 2Pe 1:12,16-18; and Christ is a "faithful witness," in testifying to men of heavenly things, Joh 3:12; Re 1:5. The heroes of the ancient church are "witnesses" to the power of true faith, Heb 12:1.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Anyone causing the death of another is himself to be put to death on the word of witnesses: but the word of one witness is not enough.
On the word of two or three witnesses, a man may be given the punishment of death; but he is not to be put to death on the word of one witness. The hands of the witnesses will be the first to put him to death, and after them the hands of all the people. So you are to put away the evil from among you.
If you have no belief when my words are about the things of earth, how will you have belief if my words are about the things of heaven?
But you will have power, when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Starting from the baptism of John till he went up from us, one will have to be a witness with us of his coming back from death.
This Jesus God has given back to life, of which we all are witnesses.
Driving him out of the town and stoning him: and the witnesses put their clothing at the feet of a young man named Saul.
For this reason, as we are circled by so great a cloud of witnesses, putting off every weight, and the sin into which we come so readily, let us keep on running in the way which is marked out for us,
And from Jesus Christ, the true witness, the first to come back from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who had love for us and has made us clean from our sins by his blood;
Easton
More than one witness was required in criminal cases (De 17:6; 19:15). They were the first to execute the sentence on the condemned (De 13:9; 17:7; 1Ki 21:13; Mt 27:1; Ac 7:57-58). False witnesses were liable to punishment (De 19:16-21). It was also an offence to refuse to bear witness (Le 5:1).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And if anyone does wrong by saying nothing when he is put under oath as a witness of something he has seen or had knowledge of, then he will be responsible:
But put him to death without question; let your hand be the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
On the word of two or three witnesses, a man may be given the punishment of death; but he is not to be put to death on the word of one witness. The hands of the witnesses will be the first to put him to death, and after them the hands of all the people. So you are to put away the evil from among you.
One witness may not make a statement against a man in relation to any sin or wrongdoing which he has done: on the word of two or three witnesses a question is to be judged. If a false witness makes a statement against a man, saying that he has done wrong, read more. Then the two men, between whom the argument has taken place, are to come before the Lord, before the priests and judges who are then in power; And the judges will have the question looked into with care: and if the witness is seen to be false and to have made a false statement against his brother, Then do to him what it was his purpose to do to his brother: and so put away the evil from among you. And the rest of the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and never again do such evil among you. Have no pity; let life be given for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Now when it was morning, all the chief priests and those in authority took thought together with the purpose of putting Jesus to death.
But with loud cries, and stopping their ears, they made an attack on him all together, Driving him out of the town and stoning him: and the witnesses put their clothing at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Hastings
This is the rendering of Heb. '
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Come, let us make an agreement, you and I; and let it be for a witness between us.
If you are cruel to my daughters, or if you take other wives in addition to my daughters, then though no man is there to see, God will be the witness between us.
Take this book of the law and put it by the ark of the Lord's agreement, so that it may be a witness against you.
And Joshua said to all the people, See now, this stone is to be a witness against us; for all the words of the Lord have been said to us in its hearing: so it will be a witness against you if you are false to the Lord your God.
Then Boaz said to the responsible men and to all the people, You are witnesses today that I have taken at a price from Naomi all the property which was Elimelech's, and everything which was Chilion's and Mahlon's.
Then he said, The Lord is witness against you, and the man on whom he has put the holy oil is witness this day that you have seen no wrong in me. And they said, He is witness.
It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face.
Even now my witness is in heaven, and the supporter of my cause is on high.
The breathing out of true words gives knowledge of righteousness; but a false witness gives out deceit.
A false witness will not go without punishment, and the breather out of deceit will not go free. Great numbers will make attempts to get the approval of a ruler: and every man is the special friend of him who has something to give. read more. All the brothers of the poor man are against him: how much more do his friends go far from him! ... He who gets wisdom has love for his soul: he who keeps good sense will get what is truly good. A false witness will not go without punishment, and the breather out of deceit will be cut off.
A false witness will be cut off, ...
One who gives false witness against his neighbour is a hammer and a sword and a sharp arrow.
Because they have done shame in Israel, and have taken their neighbours' wives, and in my name have said false words, which I did not give them orders to say; and I myself am the witness, says the Lord.
And I put it in writing, stamping it with my stamp, and I took witnesses and put the money into the scales.
Then they said to Jeremiah, May the Lord be a true witness against us in good faith, if we do not do everything which the Lord your God sends you to say to us.
And whatever place will not take you in and will not give ear to you, when you go away, put off the dust from your feet as a witness against them.
You are witnesses of these things.
But you will have power, when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
This Jesus God has given back to life, of which we all are witnesses.
And put to death the Lord of life; whom God gave back from the dead; of which fact we are witnesses.
For God is my witness, whose servant I am in spirit in the good news of his Son, that you are at all times in my memory and in my prayers,
If you keep yourselves safely based in the faith, not moved from the hope of the good news which came to you, and which was given to every living being under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
I give you orders before God, the giver of life, and Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate gave witness to the faith,
For this reason, as we are circled by so great a cloud of witnesses, putting off every weight, and the sin into which we come so readily, let us keep on running in the way which is marked out for us,
And has made us to be a kingdom and priests to his God and Father; to him let glory and power be given for ever and ever. So be it.
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea say: These things says the true and certain witness, the head of God's new order:
Morish
The testimony or evidence adduced or given in confirmation of an assertion, and so often used judicially. The term also sometimes speaks simply of an expression of mind or feeling. Until God intervenes in power to establish His own purpose in regard to this world, He maintains a testimony to that which He will assuredly accomplish.
The words ????????, ????????, and ????????? are translated both 'testimony' and 'witness.' The idea runs all through the scriptures in respect both to God Himself and to His people. Paul declared before the heathen at Lystra that God 'had not left himself without witness' as to His existence and His goodness, in giving rain and fruitful seasons, filling their 'hearts with food and gladness,' Ac 14:17. The invisible things of God are testified of, "being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, or divinity." Ro 1:19-20.
God having for fifteen hundred years manifested His patience towards the guilty antediluvian world, He, after warning the people by the preaching of Noah, bore witness to His righteousness and His power by the deluge, and at the same time manifested His grace in saving Noah and his family in the ark.
The witness which God vouchsafed of Himself to Abraham was that He was 'THE ALMIGHTY GOD'; to Moses it was 'I AM THAT I AM'; and to Israel, 'JEHOVAH.' The ark was often called the "Ark of the testimony," and the tabernacle was the "Tent of witness," the witness of good things to come. To Nebuchadnezzar God was witnessed to as the 'GOD OF HEAVEN.' To the Christian He is 'GOD AND FATHER.'
Israel were of old God's witnesses, and will also be in the future.
When Christ was on earth He bore witness to God as LOVE and LIGHT. The Lord Jesus is declared to be "the faithful and true witness," Re 3:14; and His works and His words were witnesses that He had come from God. The Father also bore witness to Him as His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased. The Lord Jesus confessed before the Jewish council that He was the Son of God, and before Pilate that He was the King of the Jews. Mt 26:63-64; 27:11.
Peter and John were witnesses of the truth before the council, so that they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Ac 4:13. Stephen also was a true witness, and his testimony led to his becoming a martyr (??????). In Heb. 11 is given a 'great cloud' of witnesses to the principle of faith in Old Testament saints, some of whom were also martyrs. God will to the last have a testimony on earth as seen in His 'two witnesses' of Rev. 11.
In Christianity there are said to be three witnesses
See Verses Found in Dictionary
On the word of two or three witnesses, a man may be given the punishment of death; but he is not to be put to death on the word of one witness.
But if he will not give ear to you, take with you one or two more, that by the lips of two or three witnesses every word may be made certain.
But Jesus said not a word. And the high priest said to him, I put you on oath, by the living God, that you will say to us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus says to him, You say so: but I say to you, From now you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.
And Jesus was before the ruler, who put a question to him, Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, You say so.
Now when they saw that Peter and John were without fear, though they were men of no education or learning, they were greatly surprised; and they took note of them that they had been with Jesus.
But he was not without witness, because he did good, and gave you rain from heaven and times of fruit, making your hearts full of food and joy.
Because the knowledge of God may be seen in them, God having made it clear to them. For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made, so that men have no reason for wrongdoing:
There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and all three are in agreement. If we take the witness of men to be true, the witness of God is greater: because this is the witness which God has given about his Son. read more. He who has faith in the Son of God has the witness in himself: he who has not faith in God makes him false, because he has not faith in the witness which God has given about his Son. And his witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea say: These things says the true and certain witness, the head of God's new order:
Smith
Witness.
Among people with whom writing is not common the evidence of a transaction is given by some tangible memorial or significant ceremony: Abraham gave seven ewe-lambs to Abimelech as an evidence of his property in the well of Beersheba. Jacob raised a heap of stones, "the heap of witness." as a boundary-mark between himself and Laban.
The tribes of Reuben and Gad raised an "altar" as a witness to the covenant between themselves and the rest of the nation. Joshua set up a stone as an evidence of the allegiance promised by Israel to God.
But written evidence was by no means unknown to the Jews. Divorce was to be proved by a written document.
De 24:1,3
In civil contracts, at least in later times documentary evidence was required and carefully preserved.
On the whole the law was very careful to provide and enforce evidence for all its infractions and all transactions bearing on them. Among special provisions with respect to evidence are the following:
1. Two witnesses at least are required to establish any charge.
Nu 35:30; De 17:6; Joh 8:17; 2Co 13:1
comp. 1Tim 5:19
2. In the case of the suspected wife, evidence besides the husband's was desired.
3. The witness who withheld the truth was censured.
4. False witness was punished with the penalty due to the offence which it sought to establish.
5. Slanderous reports and officious witness are discouraged.
Ex 20:16; 23:1; 18/16/type/bbe'>Le 18:16,18
etc.
6. The witnesses were the first executioners.
De 15:9; 17:7; Ac 7:58
7. In case of an animal left in charge and torn by wild beasts, the keeper was to bring the carcass in proof of the fact and disproof of his own criminality.
8. According to Josephus, women and slaves were not admitted to bear testimony. In the New Testament the original notion of a witness is exhibited in the special form of one who attests his belief in the gospel by personal suffering. Hence it is that the use of the ecclesiastical term ("martyr." the Greek word for "witness," has arisen.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And he said, Take these seven lambs from me as a witness that I have made this water-hole.
They will be witness that I will not go over these stones to you, and you will not go over these stones or this pillar to me, for any evil purpose.
Do not give false witness against your neighbour.
But if it has been damaged by a beast, and he is able to make this clear, he will not have to make payment for what was damaged.
Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness.
You may not have sex relations with your brother's wife, for she is your brother's.
And you may not take as wife a woman and at the same time her sister, to be in competition with her in her life-time.
By taking as her lover another man, and keeps it secret so that her husband has no knowledge of it, and there is no witness against her, and she is not taken in the act;
Anyone causing the death of another is himself to be put to death on the word of witnesses: but the word of one witness is not enough.
And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you.
On the word of two or three witnesses, a man may be given the punishment of death; but he is not to be put to death on the word of one witness. The hands of the witnesses will be the first to put him to death, and after them the hands of all the people. So you are to put away the evil from among you.
If a man takes a wife, and after they are married she is unpleasing to him because of some bad quality in her, let him give her a statement in writing and send her away from his house.
And if the second husband has no love for her and, giving her a statement in writing, sends her away; or if death comes to the second husband to whom she was married;
Now when they came to the country by Jordan in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh put up there, by Jordan, a great altar, seen from far.
So we said, Let us now make an altar for ourselves, not for burned offerings or for the offerings of beasts:
And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad gave to that altar the name of Ed. For, they said, It is a witness between us that the Lord is God.
And Joshua put these words on record, writing them in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and put it up there under the oak-tree which was in the holy place of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, See now, this stone is to be a witness against us; for all the words of the Lord have been said to us in its hearing: so it will be a witness against you if you are false to the Lord your God.
Let my teaching be kept secret: and my words be given to my disciples only.
And I put it in writing, stamping it with my stamp, and I took witnesses and put the money into the scales. So I took the paper witnessing the business, one copy rolled up and stamped, and one copy open: read more. And I gave the paper to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, before the eyes of Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, and of the witnesses who had put their names to the paper, and before all the Jews who were seated in the place of the armed watchmen. And I gave orders to Baruch in front of them, saying, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Take these papers, the witness of this business, the one which is rolled up and stamped, and the one which is open; and put them in a vessel of earth so that they may be kept for a long time. For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, There will again be trading in houses and fields and vine-gardens in this land. Now after I had given the paper to Baruch, the son of Neriah, I made my prayer to the Lord, saying,
Even in your law it is said that the witness of two men is true.
Driving him out of the town and stoning him: and the witnesses put their clothing at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Do not take as true any statement made against one in authority, but only if two or three give witness to it.