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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Witnesses and advocates in court

Jewish law convicted no one on a single witness: it demanded two or three, examined them closely and gave little weight to the word of women. Courts also had accusers and advocates, and Jewish pictures of God's heavenly court gave those roles to Satan and to defenders of Israel.

Jewish life and lawKings, rulers and courts

First, in plain English

One person's word against another's will not convict anyone in this courtroom. The law of Moses required at least two witnesses before anyone could be condemned. Judges questioned them closely, and a witness caught lying could suffer the penalty he wanted for the accused. Whose word counted was limited too: the courts of the day gave little weight to women or slaves. A court also had people who spoke for each side, and Jews pictured God's own court the same way, with an accuser bringing charges and an advocate pleading for Israel.

What it meant then

Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15 were the standard texts for requiring two witnesses, a rule the cultural backgrounds notes call foundational. Keener says the rabbis held that one eyewitness was not enough, even against a murderer caught with the bloody knife in hand. Josephus states the law: "let not a single witness be credited, but three, or two at the least, and those such whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives." Witnesses were cross-examined, and contradictory testimony should have ended a case. False witnesses in a capital case were to be put to death (Deuteronomy 19:16-21). Pharisaic tradition tightened the rule, and a witness who could not be questioned in court did not count. Gentile courts were laxer, and some Greek handbooks taught how to give false testimony persuasively. Women's testimony carried limited weight in both Jewish and Roman law. Josephus writes, "But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex," and Keener says the culture "considered their witness worthless." Courts also had advocates. Keener says the word John uses for the Spirit probably comes from the courtroom, meaning advocate or defending attorney. In Jewish pictures of God's heavenly court, Satan is the chief prosecutor, while God, his mercy or the angel Michael defends Israel. Roman courts had no public prosecutor and relied on an interested party to bring charges. Wright describes the advocate as the one who explains to judge or jury how things look from the client's side. The ESV Study Bible traces through John's Gospel a trial in which, in the end, the world and not Jesus is in the dock.

The bridge to today

An analogy: the rule that a confession alone cannot convict without corroborating evidence. The bar is set high on purpose, and anyone caught lying under oath is punished.

What it changes in the reading

The two-witness rule lies behind the steps for settling a case among believers in Matthew 18:16, and Paul cites it in 2 Corinthians 13:1. When John 14:16 calls the Spirit another Advocate, the word comes from the courtroom, where in John's telling the world, not Jesus, turns out to be on trial. Because women's word was discounted, women chosen as the first witnesses of the resurrection go against the culture.

Where the analogy breaks

Not a rule that any evidence can satisfy. Modern corroboration can come from records or forensics. The ancient rule counted people, two or three qualified witnesses, and the law barred some, such as women, from counting at all. A false witness faced the penalty he had sought for the accused.

Where scholars disagree

What the word for the Spirit in John 14:16 means. Keener says its background is debated but probably the courtroom, an advocate or defending attorney. The cultural backgrounds notes say the term did not always carry a legal sense, though it sometimes did. The ESV Study Bible renders it Helper, a helping presence, without stressing the court.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-18-15-20\/","n":"Matthew 18:15-20, Two or three witnesses and the assembly","s":"Jesus sets out how to deal with a brother who sins: privately, then with witnesses, then before the church. What they bind on earth is bound in heaven, and he is present where two or three gather in his name.","r":"Matthew 18:15-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-26-47-75\/","n":"Matthew 26:47-75, Arrest, twelve legions, the council and the rooster","s":"Judas comes with an armed crowd and a kiss. Jesus refuses the sword and the twelve legions of angels, is tried at night before Caiaphas, and is condemned for blasphemy while Peter swears he never knew him.","r":"Matthew 26:47-75"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-28-1-15\/","n":"Matthew 28:1-15, Women at dawn and a bribed guard","s":"At dawn after the Sabbath an angel rolls back the stone and tells two women that Jesus is risen. They meet him on the road, while the chief priests pay the guards to say the disciples stole the body.","r":"Matthew 28:1-15"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-18-1-8\/","n":"Luke 18:1-8, The widow and the judge","s":"Jesus tells of a judge who neither feared God nor respected people and a widow who kept coming to him for justice until he gave in. How much more, he says, will God see justice done for his chosen ones.","r":"Luke 18:1-8"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-5-19-47\/","n":"John 5:19-47, The Son sent by the Father, and his witnesses","s":"Jesus answers the charge of making himself equal with God: the Son does what he sees the Father doing, gives life and judges, and has witnesses in John, in his works, in the Father and in the Scriptures.","r":"John 5:19-47"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-8-12-30\/","n":"John 8:12-30, The light of the world by the treasury","s":"Jesus calls himself the light of the world. Told that testimony about himself does not count, he answers with the law's rule of two witnesses: himself and the Father who sent him.","r":"John 8:12-30"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-9-1-41\/","n":"John 9:1-41, A man born blind is put out","s":"Jesus puts mud on a blind beggar's eyes and sends him to wash in Siloam. Because it is the Sabbath the man is questioned, his parents are afraid, and when he defends Jesus he is thrown out.","r":"John 9:1-41"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-14-1-31\/","n":"John 14:1-31, Rooms in the Father's house, and another Advocate","s":"Jesus tells his troubled disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father's house, that he is the way, and that the Father will send another Advocate, the Spirit of truth. He leaves them his peace.","r":"John 14:1-31"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-15-18-16-15\/","n":"John 15:18-16:15, Hated by the world and put out of the synagogue","s":"Jesus warns that the world will hate his followers as it hated him, that they will be put out of the synagogues and even killed by people who think they are serving God, and that the Advocate will prove the world wrong.","r":"John 15:18-16:15"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-20-1-18\/","n":"John 20:1-18, The empty tomb and the gardener","s":"Mary Magdalene finds the stone moved and runs to Peter and the beloved disciple, who see the linen cloths lying in the empty tomb. Weeping outside, she takes the risen Jesus for the gardener until he says her name, and he sends her to tell the others.","r":"John 20:1-18"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-21-15-25\/","n":"John 21:15-25, Feed my sheep, and stretch out your hands","s":"Three times Jesus asks Peter whether he loves him and three times tells him to tend his sheep. He foretells Peter's death and answers his question about the beloved disciple, whose testimony closes the book.","r":"John 21:15-25"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2corinthians-12-19-13-14\/","n":"2 Corinthians 12:19-13:14, Two or three witnesses","s":"Paul warns that on his third visit every charge will be established by two or three witnesses and that he will not spare the unrepentant, then closes with a call to restoration, the holy kiss and a threefold blessing.","r":"2 Corinthians 12:19-13:14"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1timothy-5-17-25\/","n":"1 Timothy 5:17-25, Double honor, two witnesses, the elect angels and a little wine","s":"Elders who lead well deserve double honor and pay; charges against them need two or three witnesses; Paul charges Timothy before God, Christ and the elect angels to act without favoritism, to lay hands on no one hastily, and to take a little wine.","r":"1 Timothy 5:17-25"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1john-1-5-2-17\/","n":"1 John 1:5-2:17, God is light, an advocate, and a world passing away","s":"God is light with no darkness in him, so to claim fellowship with him while walking in darkness is a lie; the blood of Jesus cleanses, and those who confess are forgiven. Anyone who sins has an advocate with the Father, the atoning sacrifice for the whole world. The old command of love is new, the darkness is passing, and the world is passing away.","r":"1 John 1:5-2:17"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1john-5-1-12\/","n":"1 John 5:1-12, Water, blood and three witnesses","s":"Whoever believes Jesus is the Christ is God's child, and loving the parent means loving the child. Faith overcomes the world. Jesus Christ came by water and blood, not by water only, and three testify, the Spirit, the water and the blood; God's testimony is that he has given eternal life in his Son.","r":"1 John 5:1-12"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-11-1-14\/","n":"Revelation 11:1-14, the measured temple and the two witnesses","s":"John is told to measure God's temple and its worshipers but to leave out the outer court, given to the nations to trample for forty-two months. Two witnesses in sackcloth prophesy with the powers of Elijah and Moses, are killed by the beast from the Abyss and left unburied in the great city, then raised and taken up to heaven.","r":"Revelation 11:1-14"}

Sources

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 18:16, 26:60 and 28:7
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 18:16, 26:59-60, 27:3-4 and 28:1-10
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 4.8.15, trans. William Whiston
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 8:17 and 8:19
ESV Study Bible, study note on John 5:31-47
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 5:31 and 9:22-23
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 14:16 and 16:8-11
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 14:16, 15:26 and 16:8
N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part Two, comments on John 14:12-21 and 16:1-11
ESV Study Bible, study note on John 14:16-17

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