What Does John 5:31 Mean in the King James?
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A voice cannot authenticate itself; testimony becomes established when another witness confirms it.
THE MEANING
This verse meets the reader wherever a claim about identity or reality is being made: the self alone cannot make its testimony stand as established truth. Here, “not true” means the witness is insufficient on its own, not necessarily that the speaker is lying.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that personal certainty makes a claim self-validating.
THE ROOT
μαρτυρῶ
martyrō
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
to bear witness or testify
“bear witness” in this verse is martyrō. Greek keeps bearing witness and testimony in one word family, where English can make them feel like separate ideas. The verse shows that testimony spoken by the self alone cannot supply its own confirmation.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness; one who testifies
μάρτυς
This names the person who bears witness, linking the act in this verse to the one who speaks as a witness.
martyria: testimony; witness
μαρτυρία
This names the testimony itself, the same word family that appears in John 8:17 when the testimony of two is called true.
ἀληθής
alēthēs
GROWS FROM
ἀληθ-
true, genuine, truthful
The word means true or genuine, while the conditional here focuses on whether a witness stands when it comes from the self alone. The claim is not necessarily a lie; it lacks confirmation beyond the speaker.
ALSO GROWS
alētheia: truth
ἀλήθεια
This noun belongs to the same word family and names the truth that testimony is meant to establish.
alēthinos: genuine; real
ἀληθινός
This related form echoes the distinction between testimony that merely asserts itself and testimony established as genuine.
THE PATTERN
Testimony becomes established through confirmation from more than one witness.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.THE THREAD
It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.John 8:17 uses μαρτυρία (martyria), meaning testimony, from the same word family as “bear witness” here. It makes the hidden condition plain: testimony becomes established through a witness beyond the self.
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