Witness

VIEW:18 DATA:01-04-2020

WITNESS.—This is the rendering of Heb. ‘çd and ‘çdah and of the Gr. martys, martyria, and martyreô, and compounds of this root. The primitive idea of the Heb. root is to repeat, re-assert, and we find the word used in the following connexions:—(1) Witness meaning evidence, testimony, sign (of things): a heap of stones (Gen_31:44), the Song of Moses (Deu_31:26), Job’s disease (Job_16:8), the stone set up by Joshua at Shechem (Jos_24:27). So in the NT the dust on the feet of the disciples was to be a witness against the Jews (Mar_6:11). (2) Witness signifying the person who witnesses or can testify or vouch for the parties in debate; e.g. God is witness between Jacob and Laban (Gen_31:50); so Job says, ‘My witness is in heaven’ (Job_16:19, cf. also 1Sa_12:5 ff., Jer_29:23; Jer_42:5). In the NT God is called on by St. Paul to witness to his truth and the purity of his motives (Rom_1:9, 2Co_1:23 etc.). Akin to this meaning we have (3) Witness in a legal sense. Thus we find witnesses to an act of conveyancing (Jer_32:10), to a betrothal (Rth_4:9), while in all civil and criminal cases there were witnesses to give evidence, and references to false witnesses are frequent (cf. Pro_12:17; Pro_19:5-9; Pro_21:28; Pro_25:18 etc.). See also Justice (II.), 2; Oaths. In the NT the Apostles frequently appear as witnesses (martyres) of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (Luk_24:48, Act_1:8; Act_2:32; Act_3:15 etc.). The heroes of the faith are called the ‘cloud of witnesses’ (Heb_12:1), and Jesus Himself is ‘the faithful witness (martyr)’ in Rev_1:6; Rev_3:14 (cf. 1Ti_6:13). Cf. also artt. Ark, § 1; Tabernacle, § 7 (a).
W. F. Boyd.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

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. Gen_21:30; Gen_31:47; Gen_31:52.
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. Jos_22:10; Jos_22:26; Jos_22:34; Jos_24:26-27. But written evidence was by no means unknown to the Jews. Divorce was to be proved by a written document. Deu_24:1; Deu_24:3.
In civil contracts, at least in later times, documentary evidence was required and carefully preserved. Isa_8:16; Jer_32:10-16. 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. Num_35:30; Deu_17:6; Joh_8:17; 2Co_13:1. Compare 1Ti_5:19.
2. In the case of the suspected wife, evidence besides the husband's was desired. Num_5:13.
3. The witness who withheld the truth was censured. Lev_5:1.
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. Exo_20:16; Exo_23:1; Lev_18:16; Lev_18:18; etc.
6. The witnesses were the first executioners. Deu_15:9; Deu_17:7; Act_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. Exo_22:13.
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.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

The word ‘witness’ had many usages and meanings in the Bible. It was commonly used to refer to people who saw, knew or experienced something (Deu_17:6; Act_5:30-32), or to their open declaration of what they saw, knew or experienced. Their witness was their testimony (Exo_20:16; Joh_3:11).
‘Witness’ was also used to denote a person who guaranteed, or swore to, the truth of something (Rth_4:9; 1Sa_12:5; 2Co_1:23); or it may have denoted that person’s oath or guarantee of the truth (Act_10:43; Rom_3:21). Even a lifeless object could be a witness, in the sense of being a guarantee or confirmation of something, such as a verbal agreement (Gen_31:44-50; Jos_24:27). Actions likewise could be a witness, in the sense of being evidence (Joh_5:36).
The law of Israel
When God established his covenant with Israel at Mt Sinai, he gave the Ten Commandments as the basis of the covenant requirements laid upon his people. The two tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments were a witness, or testimony, to God’s demands and to Israel’s acceptance of them (Exo_24:3; Exo_24:12). They were therefore called the testimony (Exo_25:21), the ark of the covenant in which they were placed was called the ark of the testimony (Exo_25:16), and the tabernacle (or tent) in which the ark was kept was called the tabernacle of the testimony (Exo_38:21).
Other uses of ‘witness’ in relation to Israel’s laws were concerned with evidence in lawsuits. The main requirement was that there be at least two witnesses if the judges were to accept or act upon any accusation (Deu_19:15; cf. Mat_18:15-16). To discourage people from making accusations secretly or lightly, the law required them, in certain cases, to participate publicly in the punishment if the accused was found guilty (Deu_17:6-7).
It was wrong, however, for a witness to remain silent when he had evidence to present (Lev_5:1). If the judges found that a witness had given false evidence, they inflicted upon him the punishment that he had tried to bring upon the accused (Deu_19:16-21; cf. Mar_14:55-56).
The witness of Jesus
‘Witness’ had a specific meaning in relation to the life of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was a witness to Jesus in the sense that he pointed people to Jesus as the Saviour who had come from God. John was a witness to the truth (Joh_1:7; Joh_1:15; Joh_5:33). The works Jesus did were also a witness, for they showed clearly that he was the Messiah who had come from God. The Old Testament Scriptures were another witness (Joh_5:36-39).
With all these witnesses, the Pharisees had no basis for their objection that Jesus had no witnesses to support his claim to be the God-sent Saviour (Joh_8:12-13). Jesus came from God as the one who revealed God to the world, and therefore he was a witness to the truth of God (Joh_3:11; Joh_18:37). His witness was supported by the witness of the Father, and therefore the Pharisees should have accepted it (Joh_8:14-18).
Those who lived with Jesus were witnesses to the truth that he was God in human form, the Saviour of the world (1Jn_1:1-3; 1Jn_4:14). Other believers, whether in the first century or the present day, bear the same witness to him, because of the Spirit who bears witness within them (Joh_15:26; 1Jn_5:7; 1Jn_5:10-11).
Witness in the early church
After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the disciples boldly bore witness to him as Lord and Messiah. They emphasized the facts of his life, death, and particularly his resurrection, for they were personal eye-witnesses of those events (Act_2:22-24; Act_2:32-33; Act_5:30-32; Act_10:36-43; Act_13:27-31).
These personal eye-witnesses were the first to spread the gospel (Luk_24:46-49; Act_1:8), but other believers also bore witness to Jesus when they preached the gospel (Act_20:24; Act_23:11). The gospel was sometimes called the witness, or testimony, of Christ (1Co_1:6; 1Co_2:1; 2Th_1:10).
Often Christians, as well as the gospel they preached, came under attack. In these circumstances they had to bear the same testimony to the truth as Jesus had borne (Act_22:20; 1Ti_6:13-14; Rev_1:9). Some were killed because of their witness to Jesus (Rev_2:13; Rev_11:7; Rev_12:11). In fact, bearing witness to Jesus became so closely associated with being killed for Jesus’ sake that the word for ‘witness’ (Greek: martyria) produced the word ‘martyr’ (Rev_6:9; Rev_17:6; Rev_20:4).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

wit?nes (nouns עד, ‛ēdh, and עדה, ‛ēdhah, and verb ענה, ‛ānāh; μάρτυς, mártus, with all derivative words and their compounds): The word ?witness? is used of inanimate things, e.g. the heap of stones testifying to the covenant between Jacob and Laban (Gen_31:44-54), and the Song of Moses. (Deu_31:19, Deu_31:21). The main use of the word is forensic, and from this use all other applications are naturally derived. Important legal agreements required the attestation of witnesses, as in the case of the purchase of property, or a betrothal (Rth_4:1-11, where we are told that the ancient form of attestation was by a man drawing off his shoe and giving it to his neighbor).
The Mosaic Law insisted on the absolute necessity of witnesses in all cases which came before a judge, especially in criminal cases. Not only in criminal cases, but in all cases, it was necessary to have at least two witnesses to make good an accusation against a person (Deu_17:6; Deu_19:15; compare Num_35:30; Mat_18:16; Joh_8:17; 2Co_13:1; 1Ti_5:19). According to the Talmud (Peṣāḥı̄m 113b), if in a case of immorality only one witness came forward to accuse anyone, it was regarded as sinful on the part of that witness.
On the other hand, anyone who, being present at the adjuration (Lev_5:1 the Revised Version (British and American)), refused to come forward as a witness when he had testimony to bear, was considered to have sinned (Pro_29:24). Among those not qualified to be witnesses were the near relations of the accuser or the accused, friends and enemies, gamesters, usurers, tax-gatherers, heathen, slaves, women and those not of age (Ṣanhedhrı̄n 3 3, 4; Rō'sh Ha-shānāh 1 7; Bābhā' Ḳammā' 88a; compare Ant., IV, viii, 15). No one could be a witness who had been paid to render this service (Bekhōrōth 4 6). In cases of capital punishment there was an elaborate system of warning and cautioning witnesses. Each witness had to be heard separately (Ṣanhedhrı̄n 5; compare 3 5). If they contradicted one another on important points their witness was invalidated (Ṣanhedhrı̄n 5).
No oath was required from witnesses. The meaning of Lev_5:1 was not that witnesses had to take an oath, as some think; it describes the solemn adjuration of the judge to all those with knowledge of the case to come forward as witnesses (see OATH). When a criminal was to be put to death, the witnesses against him were to take the foremost share in bringing about his death (Deu_17:7; compare Act_7:58), in order to prove their own belief in their testimony. In the case of a person condemned to be stoned, all the witnesses had to lay their hands on the head of the condemned (Lev_24:14). ?False witnessing? was prohibited in the Decalogue (Exo_20:16); against it the lex talionis was enforced, i.e. it was done to the witness as he meant to do to the accused (Deu_19:16-21). The Sadducees held that only when the falsely accused had been executed, the false witnesses should be put to death; the Pharisees, that false witnesses were liable to be executed the moment the death sentence had been passed on the falsely accused (Maḳḳōth 17). In spite of prohibitions, false witnessing was a very common crime among the people (Psa_27:12; Psa_35:11; Pro_6:19; Pro_12:17; Pro_14:5; Pro_19:5; Pro_24:28; Mat_26:60; Act_6:13).
In Act_22:20; Rev_2:13; Rev_17:6 the word martus, ?witness?, seems to be beginning to acquire the meaning of ?martyr,? as in the King James Version, although the Revised Version (British and American) translates ?witness? in the first two passages, retaining ?martyr? only in the third with ?witness? in the m. For ?Tabernacle of Witness? see TABERNACLE.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

It occurs, first, in the sense of a person who deposes to the occurrence of any fact, a witness of any event. It means a judicial witness in Exo_23:1; Lev_5:1; Num_5:13; Num_35:30 (comp. Deu_17:6; Deu_19:15; Mat_18:16; 2Co_13:1); Pro_14:5; Pro_24:28; Mat_26:65; Act_6:13; 1Ti_5:19; Heb_10:28. It is applied, generally, to a person who certifies, or is able to certify, to any fact which has come under his cognizance (Jos_24:22; Isa_8:2; Luk_24:48; Act_1:8; Act_1:22; 1Th_2:10; 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_2:2; 1Pe_5:1). So in allusion to those who witness the public games (Heb_12:1). It is also applied to anyone who testifies to the world what God reveals through him (Rev_11:3). In the latter sense the Greek word is applied to our Lord (Rev_1:5; Rev_3:14). It is further used in the ecclesiastical sense of martyr.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


(עֵד, fern. עֵדָה; Sept. and New Test μάρτυς; Vulg. testis) is used in the English Bible botb of persons and things.
I. Leading Significations. — This frequent term occurs,
1. In the sense of a person who deposes to the occurrence of any fact, a witness of any event. The Hebrew word is from עוּד, to repeat. The Greek word is usually derived from μείρω), to "divide," "decide," etc., because a witness decides controversies (Heb_6:16); but Damm (Lex. Bom. col. 1495) deduces it from the old word μάρη, "the hand," because witnesses anciently held up their hands in giving evidence. This custom, among the ancient Hebrews, is referred to in Gen_14:22; among the heathens, by Homer (Iliad, 10:321), and by Virgil (AEneid, 12:196). God himself is represented as swearing in this manner (Deu_32:40; Eze_20:5-6; Eze_20:15; comp. Num_14:30). So also the heathen gods (Pindar, Olymp. 7:119, 120). These Hebrew and Greek words, with their various derivations, pervade the entire subject. They are applied to a judicial witness in Exo_23:1; Lev_5:1; Num_5:13; Num_35:30 (comp. Deu_17:6; Deu_19:15; Mat_18:16; 2Co_13:1); Pro_14:5; Pro_24:28; Mat_26:65; Act_6:13; 1Ti_5:19; Heb_10:28. They are applied, generally, to a person who certifies, or is able to certify, to any fact which has come under his cognizance (Jos_24:22; Isa_8:2; Luk_24:48; Act_1:8; Act_1:22; 1Th_2:10; 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_2:2; 1Pe_1:5). So in allusion to those who witness the public games (Heb_12:1). They are also applied to any one who testifies to the world what God reveals through him (Rev_11:3). In the latter sense the Greek word is applied to our Lord (Rev_1:5; Rev_3:14). Both the Hebrew and Greek words are also applied to God (Gen_31:50; 1Sa_12:5; Jer_42:5;. Rom_1:9; Php_1:8; 1Th_2:5); to inanimate things (Gen_31:52; Psa_89:37). The supernatural means whereby the deficiency of witnesses was compensated under the theocracy, have been already considered under the articles SEE ADULTERY, TRIAL OF; SEE URIM AND THUMMIM.
For the punishment of false witness and the suppression of evidence, SEE PUNISHMENT. For the forms of adjuration (2Ch_18:15), SEE ADJURATION. Opinions differ as to what is meant by "the faithful witness in heaven" (Psa_89:37). Some suppose it to mean the moon (comp. Psa_72:5; Psa_72:7; Jer_31:35-36; Jer_33:20-21; Sir_43:6); others, the rainbow (Gen_9:12-17).
2. The witness or testimony itself borne to any fact is expressed by עֵד; μαρτυρία (testimonium) . . . They are used of judicial testimony (Pro_25:18; Mar_14:56; Mar_14:59). In Mar_14:55, Schleusner takes the word μαρτυρία for μάρτυρ, the abstract for the concrete (Luk_22:71; Joh_8:17; Josephus, Ant. 4:8, 15). It denotes the testimony to the truth of anything generally (Joh_1:7; Joh_1:19; Joh_19:35); that of a poet (Tit_1:13). It occurs in Josephus (Cont. Apion, 1:21). In Joh_3:11; Joh_3:32, Schleusner understands the doctrine, the thing professed; in 5:32, 36, the proofs given by God of our Saviour's mission; comp. 5:9. In 8:13, 14, both he and Bretschneider assign to the word the sense of praise In Act_22:18, the former translates it teaching or instruction. In Rev_1:9, it denotes the constant profession of Christianity, or testimony to the truth of the gospel (comp. 1:2; 6:9). In 1Ti_3:7, μαρτυρία καλή means a good character (comp. 3Jn_1:12; Ecclus. 31:34; Josephus, Ant. 6:10, 1). In Psa_19:7, "The testimony of the Lord is sure" probably signifies the ordinances, institutions, etc. (comp. Psa_119:22; Psa_119:24, etc.). Those ambiguous words, "He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself" (1Jn_5:10), which have given rise to a variety of fanatical meanings, are easily understood, by explaining the word ἔχει, "receives," "retains," etc., i.e. the foregoing testimony which God hath given of his Son, whereas the unbeliever rejects it.
The whole passage is obscured in the English translation by neglecting the uniformity of the Greek, and introducing the word "record," contrary to the profession of our translators in their Preface to the Reader (ad finem). The Hebrew word, with μαρτύριον, occurs in the sense of monument, evidence, etc. (Gen_21:30; Gen_31:44; Deu_4:45; Deu_31:26; Jos_22:27; Rth_4:7; Mat_8:4; Mar_6:11; Luk_21:13; Jam_5:3). In 2Co_1:12, Schleusner explains μαρτύριον, commendation. In Provo 29:14, and Amo_1:11, לעד is pointed to mean perpetually, forever, but the Septuagint gives εἰς μαρτύριον; Aquila, εἰς ἔτι ; Symmachus, εἰς ἀεί; Vulg. in ceternum. In Act_7:44, and Rev_15:5, we find ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ μαρτυρίου, and this is the Sept. rendering for אהל מועד(which really means "the tabernacle of the congregation") in Exo_29:42; Exo_29:44; Exo_40:22; Exo_40:24 — deriving מועד from עוד, "'to testify," instead of from יוד, "to assemble." On 1Ti_2:6, see Bowyer, Conjectures. In Heb_3:5, Schleusner interprets εἰς μαρτύριον τῶν λαληθησομένων, "the promulgation of those things about to be delivered to the Jews."
3. To be or become a witness, by testifying the truth of what one knows. Thus the Sept. translates העיד (Gen_43:3), μαρτυρέω, to bear witness, and Amo_3:13 : see also 1Ki_21:10; 1Ki_21:13. In Joh_1:7; Joh_15:26; Joh_18:23, Schleusner gives as its meaning, to teach or explain; in Joh_4:44; Joh_7:7; 1Ti_6:13, to declare; in Act_10:43; Rom_3:21, to declare prophetically. With a dative case following, the word sometimes means to approve (Luk_4:22). So Schleusner understands Luk_11:48, "Ye approve the deeds of your fathers," and he gives this sense also to Rom_10:2. In like manner the passive , μαρτυρέομαι, "to be approved," "beloved," "have a good character," etc. (Act_6:3; 1Ti_5:10; comp. 3Jn_1:6; 3Jn_1:12). "The witness of the Spirit," alluded to by St. Paul (Rom_8:16), is explained by Macknight and all the best commentators, as the extraordinary operation of the Holy Spirit concurring with the filial disposition of converted Gentiles, to prove that they are "the children of God," as well as the Jews. (See below.)
4. "To call or take to witness," "to invoke as witness," μαρτύρομαιt (Act_20:26; Gal_5:3; Josephus, War, 3:8, 3). A still stronger word is διαμαρτύρομαι, which corresponds to העיד(Deu_4:26). It means "to admonish solemnly," "to charge earnestly," "to urge upon" (Psa_81:8; Neh_9:26; Luk_16:28; Act_2:40). In other passages the same words mean to "teach earnestly." In Job_29:11, a beautiful phrase occurs, "When the eye saw me it gave witness to me." The admiring expression of the eye upon beholding a man of eminent virtue and benevolence, is here admirably illustrated. The description of the mischief occasioned by a false-witness, in Pro_25:18, deserves notice: "A man that beareth false witness against his neighbor, is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow." Few words afford more exercise to discrimination, in consequence of the various shades of meaning in which the context requires they should be understood.
II. Hebrew Usages. —
1. 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 (Gen_21:30; Gen_31:47; Gen_31:52). The tribes of Reuben and Gad raised an "altar," designed expressly not for sacrifice, but 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; "for," he said, "it hath heard all the words of the Lord" (Jos_22:10; Jos_22:26; Jos_22:34; Jos_24:26-27). So also a pillar is mentioned by Isaiah as "a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt" (Isa_19:19-20). Thus also the sacred ark and its contents are called "the testimony" (Exo_16:33-34; Exo_25:16; Exo_38:21; Num_1:50; Num_1:53; Num_9:15; Num_10:11; Num_17:7-8; Num_18:2; Heb_9:4).
Thus also symbolical usages, in ratification of contracts or completed arrangements, as the ceremony of shoe-loosing (Deu_25:9-10; Rth_4:7-8), the ordeal prescribed in the case of a suspected wife (Num_5:17-31), with which may be compared the ordeal of the Styx (Class. Mus. 6:386). The Bedawin Arabs practice a fiery ordeal in certain cases by way of compurgation. (Burckhardt, Notes, 1:121; Layard, Nin. and Bab. page 305). 'The ceremony also appointed at the oblation of first-fruits (q.v.) may be mentioned as partaking of the same character (Deu_26:4)
But written evidence was by no means unknown to the Jews. Divorce was to be proved by a written document (Deu_24:1; Deu_24:3), whereas among Bedawin and. Mussulmans in general a spoken sentence is sufficient (Burckhardt, Notes, 1:110; Sale, Koran, c. 33, page 348;. Lane, Mod. Egypt, 1:136, 236). In civil contracts, at least in later times, documentary evidence was required and carefully preserved (Isa_8:16; Jer_32:10-16).
On the whole Moses was very careful to provide and enforce evidence for all infractions of law and all transactions bearing on it: e.g. the memorial stones of Jordan and of Ebal (Deu_27:2-4; Jos_4:9; Jos_8:30); the fringes on-garments (Num_15:39-40); the boundary- stones of property (Deu_19:14; Deu_27:17; Pro_22:28); the "broad plates" made from the censers of the Korahites (Num_16:38); above all, the ark of testimony itself-all these are instances of the care taken by the legislator to perpetuate evidence of the facts on which the legislation was founded, and by which it was supported (Deu_6:20-25). Appeal to the same principle is also repeatedly made in the case of prophecies as a test of their authenticity (Deu_18:22; Jer_28:9; Jer_28:16-17; Joh_3:11; Joh_5:36; Joh_10:38; Joh_14:11; Luk_24:48; Act_1:3; Act_2:32; Act_3:15, etc.)..
2. Among special provisions of the law with respect to evidence are the following:
(1) Two witnesses at least are required to establish, any charge (Num_35:30; Deu_17:6; Deu_19:15;. 1Ki_21:13; Joh_8:17; 2Co_13:1; Heb_10:28); and a like principle is laid down by Paul as a rule of procedure in certain cases in the Christian Church (1Ti_5:19).
(2) In the case of the suspected wife, evidence besides the husband's was desired, though not demanded. (Num_5:13).
(3) The witness who withheld the truth was censured (Lev_5:1).
(4) False witness was punished with the punishment due to the offence which it sought to establish. SEE OATH.
(5) Slanderous reports and officious witness are discouraged (Exo_20:16; Exo_23:1; Lev_19:16; Lev_19:18;: Deu_19:16-21; Pro_24:28).
(6) The witnesses were the first executioners (Deu_13:9; Deu_16:7; Act_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 (Exo_22:13).
(8) According to Josephus, women and slaves were mot admitted to bear testimony (Ant. 4:8, 15). To these exceptions the Mishna adds idiots, deaf, blind, and dumb persons, persons of infamous character, and some others, ten in all (Selden, De Synedr. 2:13, 11; Otho, Lex. Rabb. page 653). The high-priest was not bound to give evidence in any case except one affecting the king (ibid.). Various refinements on the quality of evidence and the manner of taking it are given in the Mishna (Sanhedr. 4:5; 5:2, 3; Maccoth, 1:1, 9; Sheb. 3:10; 4:1; 5:1). In criminal cases evidence was required to be oral; in pecuniary, written evidence was allowed (Otho, Lex. Rabb. page 653).
3. In the New Test. the original notion of a witness is exhibited in the special form of one who attests his belief in the gospel by personal suffering. So Stephen is styled by Paul (Act_22:20), and the "faithful Antipas " (Rev_2:13). John also speaks of himself and of others as witnesses in this sense (Rev_1:9; Rev_6:9; Rev_11:3; Rev_20:4). See also Hebrews 11 and Heb_12:1, in which passage a number of persons are mentioned, belonging both to Old Test. and New Test., who bore witness to the truth by personal endurance; and to this passage may be added, as bearing on the same view of the term — "witness," Dan_3:21; Dan_6:16; 1Ma_1:60; 1Ma_1:63; 2Ma_6:18-19. Hence it is that the use of the ecclesiastical term "martyr" has arisen, of which copious illustration may be seen in Suicer, Thes. 2:310, etc. SEE MARTYR.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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