Text: Deuteronomy 19:15
OT Text Referred to: Numbers 35:30
Subject: witness requirements
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Numbers 35:30 establishes the evidentiary standard for capital cases: "Anyone who kills a person shall be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses (עֵדִים, 'edim). No one is to be put to death on the testimony of a single witness." Deuteronomy 19:15 broadens this principle beyond homicide: "A single witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or sin... 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.