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.
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"If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us--one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection."
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us 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).
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"If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity;
But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
"A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, read more. then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.
But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Hastings
This is the rendering of Heb. '
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Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me."
If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me."
"Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.
And Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God."
Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon.
And he said to them, "The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand." And they said, "He is witness."
And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.
Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.
Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.
A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape. Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. read more. All a poor man's brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them. Whoever gets sense loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will discover good. A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.
A false witness will perish, but the word of a man who hears will endure.
A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.
because they have done an outrageous thing in Israel, they have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and they have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them. I am the one who knows, and I am witness, declares the LORD.'"
I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales.
Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us.
And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."
You are witnesses of these things.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you
if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
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
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On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You have said so."
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness."
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. read more. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
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/esv'>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.
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He said, "These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well."
This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm.
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
If it is torn by beasts, let him bring it as evidence. He shall not make restitution for what has been torn.
"You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness.
And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
if a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act,
"If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, 'The seventh year, the year of release is near,' and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin.
On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
"When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife,
And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.
Therefore we said, 'Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice,
The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, "For," they said, "it is a witness between us that the LORD is God."
And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God."
I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. read more. And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.' "After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying:
In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.