Witness definition1/6/2024 ![]() Elsewhere, God defends the cause of the poor, sick, and disenfranchised ( Deut 10:18 Psalm 10:18 72:4 82:3 Prov 23:10 ), the righteous ( Psalm 119:154 ), and Israel ( Jer 50:34 51:36 ). Job, for example, appeals to God to defend him as his witness, advocate, intercessor, and friend ( Job 16:19-21 ). As defender, God is beseeched to take up the cause, to testify on behalf of an aggrieved party. He appears as defender, accuser, and judge. Old Testament writers frequently use the language of the lawcourt to express God's disposition toward various individuals and groups of people. The litigants often called in witnesses to substantiate their cases. Here the accuser and defender presented their cases before the town elders, who presided over the assembly as judges. The seat of justice in Old Testament Israel was the legal assembly, which usually met near the town gate. But the history of prophetic fulfillment also guarantees its reliability. Its truth claim lies ultimately in its fulfillment. ![]() The content of the prophetic testimony is often directly inspired revelation. All instances of this kind of prophecy in the Old Testament of which there are many appear as divine testimony against unrepentant peoples. The Old Testament prophets also reveal God's mind and will when testifying against Israel ( 2 Chron 24:19 Amos 3:13 ) and the nations ( Zep 3:8 ). ![]() Here, by the ark in the tabernacle, God testifies to his own existence in the act of revealing himself to Moses ( Exod 25:22 33:9-11 Num 7:89 ) and to future generations ( Exod 29:42 ). In these instances, testimony more specifically refers to the revelatory self-witness of God to his people. The ark and the tabernacle are also occasionally called the ark of the Testimony ( Exod 25:22 Num 4:5 Joshua 4:16 ) and the tabernacle/tent of the Testimony ( Exod 38:21 Num 10:11 2 Chron 24:6 ). The sun/moon and day/night cycles appear as eternally established faithful witnesses, affirming Yahweh as a promise-keeping God ( Psalm 89:35-37 Jeremiah 33:20-21 Jeremiah 33:25 ).Ĭoncerning God's special revelation of himself to Old Testament Israel, the Ten Commandments are called the Testimony ( Exod 31:8 ) as the revelation of God's legislation, they testify to his person and work and to his expectations for Israel. This assessment holds true for most of biblical revelation.Ĭoncerning Old Testament general revelation, the psalmist praises the created order for revealing and bearing witness to God's glory and supremacy ( Psalm 8:1-4 19:1-6 29 see Job 36:24-33 37:1-13 ). Paul proclaims that the coming of Jesus and the worldwide spread of the gospel were "not done in a corner" ( Acts 26:26 ). This means that people were able to verify divine revelation. Furthermore, God has unveiled divine truth to people within the matrix of secular history. The content of biblical revelation, whether general or special, stands as testimony to its Giver. The idea of testimony is intrinsic to the idea of biblical revelation. In the Old Testament, the truth claims have to do mainly with God and the revelation of himself to Israel in the New Testament, this picture is greatly deepened with the additional revelation of Jesus Christ, and now to all the world. The message is as trustworthy as the events themselves. Thus, within Scripture an inseparable bond exists between the message and its historical reliability on the basis of sound testimony. Even the testimony of one witness is insufficient for testimony to be acceptable, it must be established by two or three witnesses ( Deut 19:15 ). Uncertifiable subjective claims, opinions, and beliefs, on the contrary, appear in Scripture as inadmissible testimony. In both Testaments, it appears as the primary standard for establishing and testing truth claims. Its validity consists in certifiable, objective facts. Linguistically, the biblical term principally derives from the Hebrew yaad, ud, anah and Greek marturein word groups conceptually, it broadly influences the thought patterns, truth claims, and theology of nearly all of Scripture. The biblical concept of testimony or witness is closely allied with the conventional Old Testament legal sense of testimony given in a court of law. Bible Dictionaries - Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Testimony Testimony
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |