Laws Concerning Witnesses
15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
For many years the eye witness testimony was a powerful tool in the court of law. Recently, under the lens of psychology, we are told the eye witness is less reliable. Their internal bias, selective seeing and other factors seem to make their version of events to come into question. Their eye witness testimony seems to be a matter of concern to those in the justice system. In the above passage, following God’s law, we might see a solution to that thought. God’s law calls for two or three witnesses to be reliable to make things just. It also states that these witnesses are to be questioned to assure the validity of their account of the events.
The other aspect of God’s approach to these things is regarding what happens to a false witness. In our land a false witness can be charged with perjury. That might carry a fine and/or a prison sentencing. However, in God’s law the false witness was given the same punishment of the one was accused. Image that thought as a deterrent to stop lying during a someone’s trial for a fault. Only those who spoke truth would want to put themselves into that situation. God’s method to weed out false testimony makes it more assuring that the right conclusion is reached. God wants justice. Not just in the case of someone being brought to a trial of some sort, but also in the case of how they are tried. God is a just God and falsehood plays no part.
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