Witness
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The Greek noun μάρτυς (martys) names a witness, a person whose testimony bears upon a matter. Context determines what the person knows, whether the testimony is truthful, and how the passage evaluates the role.
Reader summary
Full entry for μάρτυς (G3144) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek noun μάρτυς (martys) names a witness, a person whose testimony bears upon a matter. Context determines what the person knows, whether the testimony is truthful, and how the passage evaluates the role.
The BSB source-word alignment has 35 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include witnesses (20), witness (8), a witness (2), [are] witnesses (1), [our] witness (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 18:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (13), Revelation (5), 1 Thessalonians (2), 1 Timothy (2).
The Greek noun μάρτυς (martys) names a witness, a person whose testimony bears upon a matter. Context determines what the person knows, whether the testimony is truthful, and how the passage evaluates the role. Matthew 18:16 uses the noun within an accountable process for establishing a matter. Acts 7:58 also calls participants in Stephen’s execution witnesses, demonstrating that the title alone does not certify justice, honesty, or good character.
Luke and Acts give martys a concentrated apostolic use. In Luke 24:48 the risen Jesus calls the disciples witnesses of the events and message He has just explained. Acts 1:8 promises the Holy Spirit’s power as they bear witness from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Their role includes direct historical testimony to Jesus’ ministry and resurrection. Later Christians faithfully receive and proclaim that apostolic witness, but they should not call themselves eyewitnesses to events they did not see.
Other passages broaden the setting. Second Timothy 2:2 places many witnesses around teaching entrusted for further transmission. Hebrews 12:1 follows the faithful examples of Hebrews 11 with a great cloud of witnesses, yet the verse does not state that the dead continually observe earthly events. Revelation 1:5 names Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, joining His testimony to resurrection, rule, love, and redemption. Revelation 2:13 calls Antipas a faithful witness and explicitly says he was killed.
The English word “martyr” developed from this Greek family, but death is not the lexical meaning of every New Testament occurrence. Antipas and other passages make costly death explicit through context. Faithful teaching should honor courage under persecution without romanticizing danger, silencing safety concerns, or treating suffering as the proof of authenticity. A witness remains accountable to truth and evidence; the title is neither automatic commendation nor permission to bypass examination.
G3144 identifies a witness-person in legal, apostolic, hostile, teaching, exemplary, Christological, and explicitly lethal settings. The noun names the person, while context determines the testimony, credibility, authority, and cost.
But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
Witnesses support accountable establishment of a matter within the corrective process Jesus describes.
You are witnesses of these things.
The risen Jesus identifies the disciples as witnesses to the events and message explained in the surrounding passage.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Spirit-empowered apostolic witness supplies the geographic and theological program for the narrative of Acts.
They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
The noun identifies witnesses participating in Stephen’s killing without commending their testimony or conduct.
And the things that you have heard me say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be qualified to teach others as well.
The many witnesses belong to an accountable chain of received teaching entrusted to qualified people.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us.
The faithful examples just recounted surround the readers as witnesses while the exhortation centers on endurance.
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood,
Jesus bears the title “faithful witness” beside His resurrection, royal authority, love, and redeeming blood.
I know where you live, where the throne of Satan sits, yet you hold fast to My name. You did not deny your faith in Me, even in the days of My faithful witness Antipas, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
Antipas is named a faithful witness and explicitly killed, so lethal cost belongs to this context rather than every occurrence.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. One who testifies to facts personally observed, especially Christ's resurrection or God's character in covenant.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 34 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a witness
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 7 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 35 lexical occurrence verses.
μάρτυς is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
The church’s identity is tied to bearing truthful testimony about the risen Christ, even when that testimony leads to suffering.1 Timothy 5:17-25
Defines Paul’s apostolic calling flowing from encounter.Acts 1:1-11
Accountability must be grounded in verified testimony, preventing slander.Acts 22:6-16
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Martys names a person whose testimony matters, but Scripture refuses to romanticize the title. Witnesses help establish a matter in Matthew 18, yet witnesses also participate in Stephen’s unjust death. The risen Jesus appoints disciples who can testify directly to what they have seen and heard, and the Spirit empowers their mission across the geography of Acts.
Timothy receives teaching in the presence of many witnesses and must entrust it onward, which models faithful transmission without pretending later teachers were original eyewitnesses. Hebrews points readers to the faithful who have gone before, while Revelation begins with Jesus as the faithful Witness and names Antipas as a faithful witness who was killed.
Costly fidelity is real, but death does not define every occurrence. Churches should preserve apostolic testimony, examine present claims fairly, protect vulnerable people, and prepare for suffering without seeking it. The title “witness” remains accountable to truth, evidence, Christ’s lordship, and the passage’s own evaluation.
Luke.24.48
G3144 is the witness-person noun. G3140 commonly names the act of bearing witness, and G3141 names testimony or evidence. Later development toward the English “martyr” must not be read backward into occurrences where death is not stated.
Matthew 18 cites the scriptural requirement that a matter be established by two or three witnesses, carrying Israel’s legal safeguard into church correction. Luke and Acts then center the apostles’ direct testimony to Jesus’ resurrection, while later believers receive, preserve, and proclaim that witness without claiming the same firsthand role.