Reference: Witnesses
Fausets
Two at least were required to establish any charge (Nu 35:30; De 17:6; 19:15; Heb 10:28). So in the Christian church (1Ti 5:19). Written evidence in the case of divorce, not as among the Bedouins and Mussulmen a mere spoken sentence (De 24:1,3). Also in civil contracts (Isa 8:16; Jer 32:10-16). The witnesses were the first to execute sentence (De 13:9; Ac 7:58). False witness was punished with the same penalty as the offence witnessed to. Withholding witness was penal (Le 5:1). The term martyr, "witness," came to mean in Christian times one who attests the truth by suffering (Ac 22:20; Re 2:13; compare Re 1:9; 6:9; 11:3; 20:4; Hebrew 11; Heb 12:1).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
If anyone sins in that he is sworn to testify and has knowledge of the matter, either by seeing or hearing of it, but fails to report it, then he shall bear his iniquity and willfulness.
Whoever kills any person [intentionally], the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.
On the evidence of two or three witnesses he who is worthy of death shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
One witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or any wrong in connection with any sin he commits; only on the testimony of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established.
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 bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house,
And if the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies, who took her as his wife,
Bind up the testimony, seal the law and the teaching among my [Isaiah's] disciples.
And I signed the deed and sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed out for him the money on the scales. So I took the deed of the purchase -- "both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and the copy which was unsealed -- " read more. And I gave the purchase deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle's son and the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, in the presence of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard. And I charged Baruch before them, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this unsealed deed, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased yet again in this land. Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying:
Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
And when the blood of Your witness (martyr) Stephen was shed, I also was personally standing by and consenting and approving and guarding the garments of those who slew him.
Listen to no accusation [presented before a judge] against an elder unless it is confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Any person who has violated and [thus] rejected and set at naught the Law of Moses is put to death without pity or mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,
I, John, your brother and companion (sharer and participator) with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance [which are] in Jesus Christ, was on the isle called Patmos, [banished] on account of [my witnessing to] the Word of God and the testimony (the proof, the evidence) for Jesus Christ.
I know where you live -- "a place where Satan sits enthroned. [Yet] you are clinging to and holding fast My name, and you did not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed (martyred) in your midst -- "where Satan dwells.
When the Lamb broke open the fifth seal, I saw at the foot of the altar the souls of those whose lives had been sacrificed for [adhering to] the Word of God and for the testimony they had borne.
And I will grant the power of prophecy to My two witnesses for 1,260 (42 months; three and one-half years), dressed in sackcloth.
Then I saw thrones, and sitting on them were those to whom authority to act as judges and to pass sentence was entrusted. Also I saw the souls of those who had been slain with axes [beheaded] for their witnessing to Jesus and [for preaching and testifying] for the Word of God, and who had refused to pay homage to the beast or his statue and had not accepted his mark or permitted it to be stamped on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived again and ruled with Christ (the Messiah) a thousand years.