Testimony

"testimony; ordinance." The 83 occurrences of this word are scattered throughout all types of biblical literature and all periods (although not before the giving of the law at Mount Sinai).

This word refers to the Ten Commandments as a solemn divine charge or duty. In particular, it represents those commandments as written on the tablets and existing as a reminder and "testimony" of Israel's relationship and responsibility to God: "And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God" (Exod 31:18). Elsewhere these tablets are called simply "the testimony" (Exod 25:16). Since they were kept in the ark, it became known as the "ark of the testimony" (Exod 25:22) or simply "the testimony": "As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept" (Exod 16:34, the first biblical occurrence of the word). The tabernacle as the housing for the ark containing these tablets was sometimes called the "tabernacle of testimony" (Exod 38:21) or the "tent of the testimony" (Num 9:15).

The word sometimes refers to the entire law of God: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple" (Psa 19:7). Here ‘edût is synonymously parallel to "law," making it a synonym to that larger concept. Special or particular laws are sometimes called "testimonies": "And keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies…" (1Kings 2:3). In Psa 122:4 the annual pilgrimage feasts are called "the testimony of Israel."

"a testimony, witness," is almost entirely translated "testimony" in both AV and RV. The only place where both have "witness" is Act 4:33. In Act 7:44, Jam 5:3, the RV has "testimony" (AV, "witness").

In 2Th 1:10, "our testimony unto you," RV, refers to the fact that the missionaries, besides proclaiming the truths of the gospel, had borne witness to the power of these thruths. Kerugma, "the thing preached, the message," is objective, having especially to do with the effect on the hearers; marturion is mainly subjective, having to do especially with the preacher's personal experience. In 1Ti 2:6 the RV is important, "the testimony (i.e., of the gospel) to be borne in its own times," i.e., in the times Divinely appointed for it, namely, the present age, from Pentecost till the church is complete. In Rev 15:5, in the phrase, "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in Heaven," the "testimony" is the witness to the rights of God, denied and refused on earth, but about to be vindicated by the exercise of the judgments under the pouring forth of the seven bowls or vials of Divine retribution. See WITNESS.

"witness, evidence, testimony," is almost always rendered "witness" in the RV (for AV, "testimony" in Joh 1:3-33, Joh 5:34, Joh 8:17, Joh 21:24, and always for AV, "record," e.g., 1Jo 1:5-11), except in Act 22:18 and in the Apocalypse, where both, with one exception, have "testimony," Act 1:2, is objective, the "testimony" or witness given to Him (cp. Act 1:2, Act 1:9; as to those who will bear it, see Rev 12:17, RV). The statement "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy," is to be understood in the light, e.g., of the "testimony" concerning Christ and Israel in the Psalms, which will be used by the godly Jewish remnant in the coming time of "Jacob's Trouble." All such "testimony" centers in and points to Christ. See WITNESS.