What Does John 8:13 Mean?
Then the separated ones said to him, You bear witness about yourself; your witness is not true.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.THE KEY
A testimony is dismissed before it is weighed when the witness is treated as disqualified simply for speaking about himself.
THE MEANING
The accusation calls Jesus’ own testimony false because he speaks about himself. It exposes a familiar shortcut: judging a claim by the speaker’s relation to it before considering what that witness knows. The charge remains a claim, not yet a refutation of what he says.
THE ROOT
μαρτυρεῖς
martyreis
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
The Greek witness-family stem: to bear witness, testify, or give testimony.
“bear witness” in this verse is martyreis. Both “bearest record” and “thy record” come from the same witness-family: one names the act of testifying, the other the testimony. English separates the phrases, while Greek keeps the accusation focused on whether this witness and his testimony can be trusted.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness
μάρτυς
Names the person who gives testimony, the role at the center of the accusation.
martureō: testify; bear witness
μαρτυρέω
Names the act rendered “bearest record,” linking Jesus’ speech directly to the testimony being challenged.
martyria: testimony; witness
μαρτυρία
Names the “record” the Pharisees call false, completing the link between witness, act, and testimony.
THE PATTERN
Scripture weighs testimony by its source and corroboration.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.If I bear witness about myself, my witness is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the witness he bears about me is true.If we take in the witness of people, the witness of God is greater, for this is what he has witnessed concerning his Son.THE THREAD
Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness about myself, my witness is true, for I have seen where I came from and where I go; but you have not seen where I come from or where I go.Verse 14 repeats the same witness-family and reverses the verdict: Jesus bears witness of himself, yet says his testimony is true. He grounds that truth in knowing where he comes from and where he goes, shifting the question to what this witness knows.
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