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
dragged him outside the city, and stoned him, the witnesses throwing off their outer garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
"'and when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by and consenting, and holding the garments of his murders.'
Do not receive an accusation against an elder, except on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Any one who set at naught the law of Moses was put to death without pity, on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Seeing then that we are encircled with this great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin that clings about us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
I, John, who am your brother and who share with you in the woes and kingdom and stedfastness of Jesus, found myself in the island called Patmos, for the sake of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
I know where you dwell, where the throne of Satan is; and yet you are holding fast my name, and you have not denied my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was slain among you, where Satan has his dwelling.
And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they bore.
And I will give power to my two witnesses, and clothed in sackcloth they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
And I saw thrones, and those who sat on them, and they were permitted to judge; and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of God, those who did not worship the beast nor his image, and who did not receive his brand upon their brow, or hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.