A Prayer
of Jesus
I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.
Edition No. 33              WE ARE HERE TO LISTEN TO              May 1, 2004
  The Voice of Jesus
This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!
MISUNDERSTANDING JESUS (#20)
Who is the other witness in John 5:32?
There is another who bears witness to me . . ..
The False Teaching

John 5:31-33 reads in the:
New Living Translation.
"If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid.
But someone else is also testifying about me, and I can assure you that everything he says about me is true. In fact, you sent messengers to listen to John the Baptist, and he preached the truth."
New Life Version.
"If I tell about Myself, My words are worth nothing. There is another One Who tells about Me. I know the words He says about Me are true. You sent to John the Baptist and he told you the truth."
Contempory English Ver.
"If I tell about Myself, My words are worth nothing.There is another One Who tells about Me. I know the words He says about Me are true. You sent to John the Baptist and he told you the truth."
Worldwide English NT.
"If I talk about myself, then what I say is not true. But someone else also speaks about me. I know what he says about me is true. You sent someone to John and he has told you the truth about me."

These versions are hazardous to your soul because they promote a false doctrine here in the Fourth Gospel by perverting the Word of Jesus.
Exposing the Error

Every one of the four modern NT version to the left clearly says that John the Baptist is the other witness because they are interpreting the Greek (rather than translating) to make it say what it does not say, and this is very important. If "everything he says about me is true (NLT)," then Jesus is the Lamb of God as stated by John. Now read a more accurate version (RSV) of Jn.5:31-33: If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true; there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Now examine the critical differences. In the RSV the words, witness and testimony, occur altogether five times.  This is, in every case, a form of the Greek, marturew, which is to be a witness or to give testimony. The RSV is then an accurate version. These other versions contain the phrases: everything he says about me (NLT); the words He says about Me (NLV&CEV);what he says about me (WEV).But the Greek has nothing corresponding to word or he says. These phrases interpret rather than translate, and focus attention on John as the one who says words about Jesus.  This could point to John, who "said words" about Jesus, but when we examine the context, we see clearly that John is not the other witness. Who is it?
Declaring the Truth
The other witness of Jn. 5:32 is in the singular, so there is only one other witness that, in additon to Jesus, makes two.  Jesus identified both witnesses in Jn.8:17,18: In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true; I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness to me. The other witness is the Father, not John the Baptist! Jesus points to John to eliminate him (not to identify him) as the witness, for he then said: Not that the testimony (witness) which I receive is from man (5:34) Then he said: The Father who sent me has himself born witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen (5:37). Jesus distinguishes this witness from that of a man such as John, whose form they have seen and whose voice they have heard. How has the Father borne witness to him? Through the scriptures: it is they that bear witness to me (v. 39). Jesus quickly confirms this: If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words (5:46,47)? So, His writings plus my words equals two witnesses!  The Father's testimony is through the OT scriptures that bear witness to Jesus. More.
Valid HTML 4.01!