It’s also written in your law that the testimony of two people is valid.
Parallel translations
- KJV It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.
- BSB Even in your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.
- NKJV It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.
- NASB Even in your Law it has been written that the testimony of two people is true.
- NLT Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact.
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
Jesus appeals to their own law, which says the testimony of two witnesses is valid. He uses their legal standard to support His claim.
Overview
Citing the Mosaic requirement of two witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15), Jesus turns the Pharisees' own legal principle to His advantage. He prepares to name His two witnesses: Himself and the Father. This shows Jesus meeting their objection on their own terms while pointing to the divine testimony behind Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Deut 19:15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.
- Deut 17:6At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
- Heb 10:28A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses.
- Matt 18:16But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
- Gal 3:24So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- 2 Cor 13:1This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”
- Gal 4:21Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law?
- Rev 11:3I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
- 1 Kgs 21:10Set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king!’ Then carry him out, and stone him to death.”
- 1 Jn 5:9If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is God’s testimony which he has testified concerning his Son.
- John 15:25But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
- John 10:34Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?’
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John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 8:17 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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