What Does Mark 14:59 Mean?
Even so, their testimony did not match.
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
But neither so did their witness agree together.THE KEY
The Greek word behind “agree” means “equal”: the testimony is not one witness when its accounts do not match.
THE MEANING
A charge loses force when the testimony against someone does not match. Several voices do not become one corroborating account while their claims remain unequal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that an accusation becomes reliable simply because several people repeat it; their testimony still has to agree.
THE ROOT
ἴση
isē
GROWS FROM
ἰσο-
equal, the same in measure
The word translated “agree together” is literally about being equal. The verse pictures accounts that do not match, so several voices fail to form one corroborating witness.
ALSO GROWS
isos: equal, the same
ἴσος
This is the adjective used in the verse: the witnesses’ testimony is not equal.
isotēs: equality
ἰσότης
This noun makes the same idea explicit: testimony stands together when its accounts match.
isotimos: of equal value or standing
ἰσότιμος
The shared ἰσο- element carries the idea of matching or equal measure into another word.
μαρτυρία
martyria
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
witness, testimony
The Greek word holds both the act of witnessing and the testimony offered. Here, the witness is not merely a set of voices: their testimony has to cohere as evidence.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness
μάρτυς
The testimony comes from people who bear witness.
martyreō: to testify, bear witness
μαρτυρέω
The root also names the act of giving testimony, the speaking behind the claims.
martyrion: testimony, evidence
μαρτύριον
This branch shows testimony as evidence offered to establish a matter.
THE PATTERN
Testimony establishes a matter through corroboration; claims that fail to match do not form one witness.
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.And in your instruction it stands written, that the witness of two people is true.This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand.THE THREAD
And in your instruction it stands written, that the witness of two people is true.John uses the same Greek word, μαρτυρία (martyria), meaning witness or testimony. Mark shows what happens when that testimony is unequal: the voices remain separate claims instead of forming one corroborating witness.
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