Deuteronomy 5:20

5:20 You must not offer false testimony against another. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 19:16-21

19:16 If a false ²  witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, ³  19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges ⁴  who will be in office in those days. 19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, ⁵  19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ⁶  evil from among you. 19:20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you. 19:21 You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot. ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 19:1

Laws Concerning Manslaughter

19:1 When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he ⁸  is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses,

Deuteronomy 21:10-13

Laws Concerning Wives

21:10 When you go out to do battle with your enemies and the Lord your God allows you to prevail ⁹  and you take prisoners, 21:11 if you should see among them ¹⁰  an attractive woman whom you wish to take as a wife, 21:12 you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, ¹¹  trim her nails, 21:13 discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, ¹²  and stay ¹³  in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations ¹⁴  with her and become her husband and she your wife.

Psalms 27:12

27:12 Do not turn me over to my enemies, ¹⁵ 

for false witnesses who want to destroy me testify against me. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 35:11

35:11 Violent men perjure themselves, ¹⁷ 

and falsely accuse me. ¹⁸ 

Proverbs 6:19

6:19 a false witness who pours out lies, ¹⁹ 

and a person who spreads discord ²⁰  among family members. ²¹ 

Proverbs 12:17

12:17 The faithful witness ²²  tells what is right, ²³ 

but a false witness ²⁴  speaks ²⁵  deceit.

Proverbs 19:5

19:5 A false witness ²⁶  will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ²⁷  lies will not escape punishment. ²⁸ 

Proverbs 19:9

19:9 A false witness will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ²⁹  lies will perish. ³⁰ 

Proverbs 19:28

19:28 A crooked witness ³¹  scorns justice,

and the mouth of the wicked devours ³²  iniquity.

Proverbs 21:28

21:28 A lying witness ³³  will perish, ³⁴ 

but the one who reports accurately speaks forever. ³⁵ 

Proverbs 24:28

24:28 Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, ³⁶ 

and do not deceive with your words. ³⁷ 

Proverbs 25:18

25:18 Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow, ³⁸ 

so is the one who testifies against ³⁹  his neighbor as a false witness. ⁴⁰ 

Matthew 19:18

19:18 “Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony,

Matthew 26:59-61

26:59 The ⁴¹  chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were trying to find false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 26:60 But they did not find anything, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally ⁴²  two came forward 26:61 and declared, “This man ⁴³  said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

Luke 3:14

3:14 Then some soldiers ⁴⁴  also asked him, “And as for us – what should we do?” ⁴⁵  He told them, “Take money from no one by violence ⁴⁶  or by false accusation, ⁴⁷  and be content with your pay.”

Luke 19:8

19:8 But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I now give ⁴⁸  to the poor, and if ⁴⁹  I have cheated anyone of anything, I am paying back four times as much!”

Acts 6:11-13

6:11 Then they secretly instigated ⁵⁰  some men to say, “We have heard this man ⁵¹  speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 6:12 They incited the people, the ⁵²  elders, and the experts in the law; ⁵³  then they approached Stephen, ⁵⁴  seized him, and brought him before the council. ⁵⁵  6:13 They brought forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop saying things against this holy place ⁵⁶  and the law. ⁵⁷ 

Ephesians 4:25

4:25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, ⁵⁸  for we are members of one another.

Ephesians 4:2

4:2 with all humility and gentleness, ⁵⁹  with patience, bearing with ⁶⁰  one another in love,

Ephesians 3:3

3:3 that ⁶¹  by revelation the divine secret ⁶²  was made known to me, as I wrote before briefly. ⁶³ 

Ephesians 3:1

Paul's Relationship to the Divine Mystery

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus ⁶⁴  for the sake of you Gentiles –

Ephesians 3:16

3:16 I pray that ⁶⁵  according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,

Revelation 12:10

12:10 Then ⁶⁶  I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,

“The salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God,

and the ruling authority ⁶⁷  of his Christ, ⁶⁸  have now come,

because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, ⁶⁹ 

the one who accuses them day and night ⁷⁰  before our God,

has been thrown down.

[5:20]  ¹ tn Heb “your neighbor.” Clearly this is intended generically, however, and not to be limited only to those persons who live nearby (frequently the way “neighbor” is understood in contemporary contexts). So also in v. 20.

[19:16]  ² tn Heb “violent” (חָמָס, khamas). This is a witness whose motivation from the beginning is to do harm to the accused and who, therefore, resorts to calumny and deceit. See I. Swart and C. VanDam, NIDOTTE 2:177-80.

[19:16]  ³ tn Or “rebellion.” Rebellion against God’s law is in view (cf. NAB “of a defection from the law”).

[19:17]  ⁴ tn The appositional construction (“before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges”) indicates that these human agents represented the Lord himself, that is, they stood in his place (cf. Deut 16:18-20; 17:8-9).

[19:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).

[19:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will burn out” (בִּעַרְתָּ, bi’arta). Like a cancer, unavenged sin would infect the whole community. It must, therefore, be excised by the purging out of its perpetrators who, presumably, remained unrepentant (cf. Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7).

[19:21]  ⁷ sn This kind of justice is commonly called lex talionis or “measure for measure” (cf. Exod 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20). It is likely that it is the principle that is important and not always a strict application. That is, the punishment should fit the crime and it may do so by the payment of fines or other suitable and equitable compensation (cf. Exod 22:21; Num 35:31). See T. S. Frymer-Kensky, “Tit for Tat: The Principle of Equal Retribution in Near Eastern and Biblical Law,” BA 43 (1980): 230-34.

[19:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[21:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “gives him into your hands.”

[21:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the prisoners.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.

[21:12]  ¹¹ sn This requirement for the woman to shave her head may symbolize the putting away of the old life and customs in preparation for being numbered among the people of the Lord. The same is true for the two following requirements.

[21:13]  ¹² tn Heb “she is to…remove the clothing of her captivity” (cf. NASB); NRSV “discard her captive’s garb.”

[21:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “sit”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “remain.”

[21:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “go unto,” a common Hebrew euphemism for sexual relations.

[27:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “do not give me over to the desire of my enemies.”

[27:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for they have risen up against me, lying witnesses and a testifier of violence.” The form יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) is traditionally understood as a verb meaning “snort, breathe out”: “for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty” (KJV; cf. BDB 422 s.v.). A better option is to take the form as a noun meaning “a witness” (or “testifier”). See Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, and Hab 2:3.

[35:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “witnesses of violence rise up.”

[35:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[that] which I do not know they ask me.”

[6:19]  ¹⁹ sn The Lord hates perjury and a lying witness (e.g., Ps 40:4; Amos 2:4; Mic 1:4). This is a direct violation of the law (Exod 20).

[6:19]  ²⁰ sn Dissension is attributed in Proverbs to contentious people (21:9; 26:21; 25:24) who have a short fuse (15:8).

[6:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “brothers,” although not limited to male siblings only. Cf. NRSV, CEV “in a family”; TEV “among friends.”

[12:17]  ²² tn The text has “he pours out faithfully”; the word rendered “faithfully” or “reliably” (אֱמוּנָה, ’emunah) is used frequently for giving testimony in court, and so here the subject matter is the reliable witness.

[12:17]  ²³ tn Heb “righteousness.”

[12:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “witness of falsehoods.” The genitive noun functions attributively, and the plural form depicts habitual action or moral characteristic. This describes a person who habitually lies. A false witness cannot be counted on to help the cause of justice.

[12:17]  ²⁵ tn The term “speaks” does not appear in this line but is implied by the parallelism; it is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.

[19:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “a witness of lies.” This expression is an attributive genitive: “a lying witness” (cf. CEV “dishonest witnesses”). This is paralleled by “the one who pours out lies.”

[19:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “will not escape” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “will not go free.” Here “punishment” is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:9]  ³⁰ sn The verse is the same as v. 5, except that the last word changes to the verb “will perish” (cf. NCV “will die”; CEV, NLT “will be destroyed”; TEV “is doomed”).

[19:28]  ³¹ tn Heb “a witness who is worthless and wicked” (עֵד בְּלִיַּעַל, ’ed beliyya’al). Cf. KJV “an ungodly witness”; NAB “an unprincipled witness”; NCV “an evil witness”; NASB “a rascally witness.”

[19:28]  ³² tn The parallel line says the mouth of the wicked “gulps down” or “swallows” (יְבַלַּע, yÿvala’) iniquity. The verb does not seem to fit the line (or the proverb) very well. Some have emended the text to יַבִּיעַ (yavia’, “gushes”) as in 15:28 (cf. NAB “pours out”). Driver followed an Arabic balaga to get “enunciates,” which works well with the idea of a false witness (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 529). As it stands, however, the line indicates that in what he says the wicked person accepts evil – and that could describe a false witness.

[21:28]  ³³ tn Heb “a witness of lies,” an attributive genitive.

[21:28]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew verb translated “will perish” (יֹאבֵד, yo’bed) could mean that the false witness will die, either by the hand of God or by the community. But it also could be taken in the sense that the false testimony will be destroyed. This would mean that “false witness” would be a metonymy of cause – what he says will perish (cf. NCV “will be forgotten”).

[21:28]  ³⁵ tn Heb “but a man who listens speaks forever.” The first part of it may mean (1) a true witness, one who reports what he actually hears. But it may also refer to (2) someone who listens to the false testimony given by the false witness. The NIV follows the suggestion of a homonym for the Hebrew word with the meaning “will perish/be destroyed”: “will be destroyed forever.” This suggests a synonymous pair of ideas rather than a contrast. Others accept antithetical parallelism. C. H. Toy suggested an idea like “be established” to contrast with “will perish” (Proverbs [ICC], 411). W. McKane suggested it meant the truthful witness “will speak to the end” without being put down (Proverbs [OTL], 556). It is simpler to interpret the words that are here in the sense of a contrast. The idea of speaking forever/to the end would then be hyperbolic.

[24:28]  ³⁶ sn The legal setting of these sayings continues with this warning against being a false accuser. The “witness” in this line is one who has no basis for his testimony. “Without cause” is the adverb from חָנָן (khanan), which means “to be gracious.” The adverb means “without a cause; gratis; free.” It is also cognate to the word חֵן (“grace” or “unmerited [or, undeserved] favor.” The connotation is that the opposite is due. So the adverb would mean that there was no cause, no justification for the witness, but that the evidence seemed to lie on the other side.

[24:28]  ³⁷ tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause; it means “what is said.” Here it refers to what is said in court as a false witness.

[25:18]  ³⁸ sn The first line identifies the emblem of the proverb: False witnesses are here compared to deadly weapons because they can cause the death of innocent people (e.g., Exod 20:16; Deut 5:20; and Prov 14:5).

[25:18]  ³⁹ tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) followed by the preposition בְּ (bet) with its object means “to testify against” (answer against someone). With the preposition לְ (lamed) it would mean “to testify for” someone. Here the false witness is an adversary, hence the comparison with deadly weapons.

[25:18]  ⁴⁰ tn While עֵד (’ed) could be interpreted as “evidence” (a meaning that came from a metonymy – what the witness gives in court), its normal meaning is “witness.” Here it would function as an adverbial accusative, specifying how he would answer in court.

[26:59]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “Now the.” Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:60]  ⁴² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:61]  ⁴³ tn Grk “This one.”

[3:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “And soldiers.”

[3:14]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “And what should we ourselves do?”

[3:14]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “Rob no one.” The term διασείσητε (diaseishte) here refers to “shaking someone.” In this context it refers to taking financial advantage of someone through violence, so it refers essentially to robbery. Soldiers are to perform their tasks faithfully. A changed person is to carry out his tasks in life faithfully and without grumbling.

[3:14]  ⁴⁷ tn The term translated “accusation” (συκοφαντήσητε, sukofanthshte) refers to a procedure by which someone could bring charges against an individual and be paid a part of the fine imposed by the court. Soldiers could do this to supplement their pay, and would thus be tempted to make false accusations.

[19:8]  ⁴⁸ sn Zacchaeus was a penitent man who resolved on the spot to act differently in the face of Jesus’ acceptance of him. In resolving to give half his possessions to the poor, Zacchaeus was not defending himself against the crowd’s charges and claiming to be righteous. Rather as a result of this meeting with Jesus, he was a changed individual. So Jesus could speak of salvation coming that day (v. 9) and of the lost being saved (v. 10).

[19:8]  ⁴⁹ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text. It virtually confesses fraud.

[6:11]  ⁵⁰ tn Another translation would be “they suborned” (but this term is not in common usage). “Instigate (secretly), suborn” is given by BDAG 1036 s.v. ὑποβάλλω.

[6:11]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “heard him”; but since this is direct discourse, it is more natural (and clearer) to specify the referent (Stephen) as “this man.”

[6:12]  ⁵² tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[6:12]  ⁵³ tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 4:5.

[6:12]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “approaching, they seized him”; the referent (Stephen) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:12]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “the Sanhedrin” (the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews). Stephen suffers just as Peter and John did.

[6:13]  ⁵⁶ sn This holy place is a reference to the temple.

[6:13]  ⁵⁷ sn The law refers to the law of Moses. It elaborates the nature of the blasphemy in v. 11. To speak against God’s law in Torah was to blaspheme God (Deut 28:15-19). On the Jewish view of false witnesses, see Exod 19:16-18; 20:16; m. Sanhedrin 3.6; 5.1-5. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 may indicate why the temple was mentioned.

[4:25]  ⁵⁸ sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.

[4:2]  ⁵⁹ tn Or “meekness.” The word is often used in Hellenistic Greek of the merciful execution of justice on behalf of those who have no voice by those who are in a position of authority (Matt 11:29; 21:5).

[4:2]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “putting up with”; or “forbearing.”

[3:3]  ⁶¹ tn Or “namely, that is.”

[3:3]  ⁶² tn Or “mystery.”

[3:3]  ⁶³ tn Or “as I wrote above briefly.”

[3:1]  ⁶⁴ tc Several early and important witnesses, chiefly of the Western text (א* D* F G [365]), lack ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou, “Jesus”) here, while most Alexandrian and Byzantine mss (Ì⁴⁶ א¹ A B [C] D¹ Ψ 33 1739 [1881] Ï lat sy bo) have the word. However, because of the Western text’s proclivities to add or delete to the text, seemingly at whim, serious doubts should be attached to the shorter reading. It is strengthened, however, by א’s support. Nevertheless, since both א and D were corrected with the addition of ᾿Ιησοῦ, their testimony might be questioned. Further, in uncial script the nomina sacra here could have led to missing a word by way of homoioteleuton (cMuiMu). At the same time, in light of the rarity of scribal omission of nomina sacra (see TCGNT 582, n. 1), a decision for inclusion of the word here must be tentative. NA²⁷ rightly places ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets.

[3:16]  ⁶⁵ tn Grk “that.” In Greek v. 16 is a subordinate clause to vv. 14-15.

[12:10]  ⁶⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[12:10]  ⁶⁷ tn Or “the right of his Messiah to rule.” See L&N 37.35.

[12:10]  ⁶⁸ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[12:10]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited). The translation “fellow believer” would normally apply (L&N 11.23), but since the speaker(s) are not specified in this context, it is not clear if such a translation would be appropriate here. The more generic “brothers and sisters” was chosen to emphasize the fact of a relationship without specifying its type.

[12:10]  ⁷⁰ tn Or “who accuses them continually.”