Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WITNESS

One who helps establish the truthfulness of a matter by testifying firsthand about what was seen or heard. The necessity of recollecting and reiterating what happened implies that witness bearing includes a historical dimension. Although this activity originated in legal contexts, its vocabulary (Heb. ʿēḏ; Gk.mártys) quickly expanded to other social and religious settings.

The Mosaic law ensured truthfulness by requiring two or three witnesses to convict a person of a criminal offense and obligating them to lead in the execution of capital sentences (Deut. 17:6-7). Furthermore, it made bearing false witness punishable by lex talionis (Deut. 19:15-19).

Important transactions could be certified orally before the elders at the city gate or in writing by the signatures of witnesses. Even an inanimate heap of stones or an altar might serve as commemorative witnesses to a covenant (Josh. 22:26-27; 24:27). The tablets of the Law were preserved in the ark of testimony as a perpetual witness to the Israelites’ covenant with Yahweh; the nation, in turn, was a witness to the Gentiles of Yahweh’s saving activity. Since all actions are seen by God along with heaven and earth, which are personified as ever-present observers, they can be called to witness even hidden deeds.

The NT speaks of witnesses in a legal sense with reference to the trial of Jesus (Mark 14:63) and of Stephen (Acts 7:58), and it carries over the requirement of multiple witnesses to cases of church discipline and the claims of Jesus, whose witness was confirmed both by his Father and his works. Of special importance is the testimony of the apostles and other eyewitnesses who had seen the risen Jesus (Acts 1:22). Driven by deep conviction and missionary zeal, they thrust their lives into persuading the world of not only the historical events of the gospel but also their theological significance, which they regarded as no less factual: it was God who raised Jesus from the dead, and by believing in his name one could receive forgiveness of sins. Some of them witnessed unto death and in this way prepared the word mártys to become a technical term for a martyr (cf. Heb. 12:1). In addition to their human witness, the Holy Spirit confirms that believers are God’s children (Rom. 8:16).

Bibliography. A. A. Trites, The New Testament Concept of Witness. SNTSMS 31 (Cambridge, 1971).

Dale F. Leschert

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WITNESS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)