What Does Mark 14:56 Mean in the King James?
For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.
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 lie can borrow the form of testimony, but repetition cannot make its accounts agree.
THE MEANING
A charge can be loud around you and still lack a coherent witness. Many mouths do not turn contradiction into truth; the testimony remains divided even when the accusation is aimed at one person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being accused by many people proves guilt. Repetition cannot supply agreement that is absent from the testimony.
THE ROOT
ἐψευδομαρτύρουν
epseudomartyroun
GROWS FROM
ψευδο- + μαρτυρ- (pseud- + martyr-)
False testimony being borne: ψευδο- means false, and μαρτυρ- carries the sense of witness or testimony.
“bare false witness” in this verse is epseudomartyroun. The Greek word joins falsehood to the act of witnessing: the claim takes the recognizable form of testimony, but its content is false. The same witness-family words name both the person who testifies and the testimony itself, showing why a crowd of voices can still fail to produce one coherent account.
ALSO GROWS
martys: A person who testifies.
μάρτυς
The accusation presents itself as a witness’s assertion, even though it is false.
martyria: Testimony or evidence.
μαρτυρία
The same word-family names what a witness produces; several testimonies can be heard without forming a consistent account.
ἴσαι
isai
GROWS FROM
ἰσο-
iso-
Equal, the same, or on the same level.
The Greek literally says the testimonies were not equal, which gives the KJV’s “agreed not together” a concrete shape: their accounts do not match. The speakers are many, but their testimony has no common measure.
ALSO GROWS
isotimos: Of equal value or honor.
ἰσότιμος
It shows the basic sense of iso- as equality or parity.
isopsychos: Of the same mind or feeling.
ἰσόψυχος
It shows how equality can describe people whose thoughts align, the very coherence missing from these testimonies.
THE PATTERN
An accusation is established through converging testimony, not by the sheer number of voices repeating it.
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.It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.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
Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.“Witnesses” is μάρτυρες (martyres), from the same μαρτυρ- family as Mark’s word for bearing false witness. Mark shows many testimonies failing to agree; this verse makes corroboration the condition for receiving an accusation.
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