How the Bible Demonstrates the Problem of Witness Testimony

The problem of witness testimony is of biblical proportions. Truly. We can see this in more than one place in the scriptures. There were at least two possible ways witness testimony was considered an essential activity in the commerce of ancient Judea, and there are two problems with testimony that bear a striking resemblance to the problems we still face today. Among the ways, testimony was considered vital can be seen in two examples in the New Testament.

In the first case, Jesus asserts that in the presence of two or more people gathered in his name, he is present (Matt 18:20). One may surmise that it was almost holy practice to have multiple witness attestation. We can look to the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus affirms that proper conduct among individuals who have a quarrel includes the intermediation of two or more witness to support or refute the credibility of a suspect’s charge (Matt 18:16).

A second case was that testimony later served an apologetic purpose and could be considered a kind of holy activity because witnesses were so vital in establishing the truth of a claim, even one claimed from heaven. Paul suggests that over 500 people who could testify to the veracity of Jesus’ resurrection were still living. (1 Corinthians 15:6) The apologetic of Jesus’ resurrection was therefore bolstered under these conditions because a witness was only as good as his word.

On the other end of the dynamic, the New Testament demonstrates two problems that continue to be of major concern for modern judiciaries. These are the number of witnesses and the memory of those witnesses. The first example comes from the crucifixion of Christ. It reads: So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." (John 12:29) The nature of witness testimony is inconsistency.

Experts have long known that two people watching the same event transpire can conclude different accounts, sometimes radically different. This was made clear to me this past week as I watched the Michael Brown trial. Witness testimony has changed multiple times and in the collective of witnesses, no two testimonies are the same. These “small details” can affect larger ones, especially where the prosecution of details is concerned. Finally, there is the problem of memory. Consider the account attributed to Paul in the Book of Acts that changes. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. (Acts 9:7) Now those who were with me saw a light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. (Acts 22:9) In this case, Paul testifies first that the individuals at first heard a voice from heaven but later tells a crowd that they saw a light only.

All of this shows us that even among the most credible witnesses, small details can shift in one’s story over time. Even an author writing down his words is subject to this problem! And so such examples continue to show the problematic venture of infallibility and divine inspiration as it concerns good biblical exegesis. But I think this makes the biblical story more real to me. It remains a human compendium fraught with problems. We are linked not by its claim to heavenly living, but by its human character.