Later text
A 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.
Intertextuality Pair
Deuteronomy 19:15 → Numbers 35:30
Allusion
Earlier text
If 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.
Significance
Numbers 35:30 establishes the evidentiary standard for capital cases: "If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses (עֵדִים, 'edim). But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness." Deuteronomy 19:15 broadens this principle beyond homicide: "A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man... A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." The Deuteronomy passage universalizes what Numbers applied specifically to murder cases, establishing the two-witness rule as a foundational principle of Israelite jurisprudence that prevents judicial abuse in all categories of offense.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Redemptive-Historical Progression — the evidentiary safeguard Numbers 35:30 attaches to capital homicide is universalized in Deuteronomy 19:15 into the two-or-three-witness foundation of all Israelite jurisprudence: the earlier rule carried forward and broadened as the legal order matures for life in the land.
Linked Mentions 1