According to Webster a witness is an individual who is able to furnish evidence of or proof of anything; one who can bear testimony. A study of the Scriptures reveals the fact that throughout the Old and New Testaments the role of witness is of a twofold nature. It has reference to the relationship between men in human affairs; it relates also to the understanding of God which any individual may attain, and the manner in which he is able to impart this understanding to his fellow-men. Moses, for instance, was a witness of the understanding he received of the power of God to govern human affairs. He testified of this understanding in the wonders he performed before Pharaoh, in leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, and in the Ten Commandments, which he received on the mount and gave to them for application to their daily lives. Under the dispensation of the law of Moses, the honor of a witness is shown to be one of the most important factors in the administration of that law. The Hebrew lawgiver certainly understood its importance when, under divine inspiration, he laid down as one of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."
On this point, indeed, Bible history affords us innumerable instances that the necessity for honor and truth between brethren in their dealings with one another, is second only to the necessity for some degree of spiritual understanding on the part of him who judges. The writer of Proverbs, who must have had the widest experience of the administration of the law among the Israelites, describes a true witness as delivering souls, but he speaks with a forceful measure of contempt of false witnesses, talebearers, and slanderers. It is, however, when we come to the New Testament and the dispensation of the law of Christ, that the honor of a witness and the integrity and discernment of a judge are weighed in the balances of Truth and emblazoned on the standard of Christianity.
John the Baptist, that brilliant last link between the Old Testament and the New, when asked by the soldiers what they should do to repent, replied, "Do violence to no man neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages." These words, spoken to men whose profession was fighting and guarding prisoners, were, in the light of subsequent events, perhaps only in a degree less significant than his wonderful words when he reached the zenith of his mission and bore witness to Jesus the Christ, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
