This is the third time I am coming to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
Parallel translations
- WEB This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”
- KJV This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
- NKJV This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”
- NASB This is the third time that I am coming to you. On the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter shall be confirmed.
- NLT This is the third time I am coming to visit you (and as the Scriptures say, “The facts of every case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses”).
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Announcing his third visit, Paul invokes the biblical rule that every charge must be established by two or three witnesses. It matters because his coming discipline will be just and orderly, not arbitrary.
Overview
Paul cites Deuteronomy 19:15, applying its standard of fair evidence to church discipline. His three visits may themselves stand as the 'witnesses' confirming his repeated warnings. This grounds his authority in Scripture and assures the Corinthians of due process rather than personal vendetta.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Matt 18:16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
- Deut 19:15A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
- Deut 17:6On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but he shall not be executed on the testimony of a lone witness.
- John 8:17–18Even in your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.
- Num 35:30If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.
- 2 Cor 12:14See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
- Heb 10:28–29Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
- 1 Kgs 21:10But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify, ‘You have cursed both God and the king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”
- Matt 26:60–61But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward
- 1 Kgs 21:13And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.
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Christ at the center
In Christ all God's promises are 'Yes and Amen'; though rich, he became poor to make us rich, and in him God reconciles the world, making us new creations.
How 2 Corinthians 13:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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