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 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;
"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.
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.
"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.
"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,
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:
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.
And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.'
Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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,
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
"'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth."
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.