{"id":69367,"date":"2024-08-18T18:56:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T23:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=69367"},"modified":"2024-08-19T14:55:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T19:55:09","slug":"notes-on-self-incrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/notes-on-self-incrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes on Self-Incrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>The Law required two or more witnesses to a crime. A person admitting to a crime would be insufficient gain a conviction.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Deuteronomy 17:6 &#8220;<em>On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Deuteronomy 19:15 &#8220;<em>A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Witnesses to a crime involving the death penalty had to be the first to cast stones at the criminal. That logically rules out being a witness against yourself.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Deuteronomy 17:7 &#8220;<em>The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Example<\/h2>\n<p>Mark 14:53-64<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jesus, who did no sin, declined to testify in a court case against him. It was the prosecutor&#8217;s duty to prove a case against him, which they failed to do.<\/li>\n<li>Only when the High Priest pressured him under oath to answer whether he was the Christ did Jesus answer as the law required (Leviticus 5:1). To not answer would have been to deny who he was.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>John 18:21 &#8220;<em>Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jesus points out that trying to trap a defendant with his own words in a court trial is not proper. The appropriate thing is to prove the case using multiple witnesses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Arguments for Self-Incrimination Answered<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Leviticus 5:1 &#8220;<em>Now if a person sins after he hears a public adjuration to testify when he is a witness, whether he has seen or otherwise known, if he does not tell it, then he will bear his guilt.<\/em>&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>This is a witness to another person&#8217;s crime, not his own. If he is told to testify in court, then not saying what he knows is helping the criminal in his crime.<\/li>\n<li>Notice that it isn&#8217;t required that the witness volunteer to state what he knows before being adjured in court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>I Kings 8:31-32 &#8220;<em>If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house, then hear in heaven and act and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.<\/em>&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>This is a case against the defendant, and in court is forced to answer under oath.<\/li>\n<li>This doesn&#8217;t require a person to voluntarily turn himself in before being placed under oath in a court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Joshua 7:19-25\n<ul>\n<li>God already identified Achan. Joshua gave him a chance to admit his fault before executing his punishment.<\/li>\n<li>Achan did not turn himself in prior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Law required two or more witnesses to a crime. A person admitting to a crime would be insufficient gain a conviction. Deuteronomy 17:6 &#8220;On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201],"tags":[1329],"class_list":["post-69367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-self-incrimination"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7924,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-constitutes-a-witness-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":69367,"position":0},"title":"What constitutes a witness in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Deuteronomy 17:6 and II Corinthians13:1, the passages refer to the \"two or three witnesses.\" I assume these are eyewitnesses. Does DNA count as an eye witness for justice biblically? So when individuals are convicted on DNA evidence alone for their crimes and incarcerated or put to death, is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-jesus-allow-divorce-when-the-law-had-a-death-penalty-for-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":69367,"position":1},"title":"Why did Jesus allow divorce when the Law had a death penalty for adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm trying to figure out how to reconcile a couple of Jesus' statements in the Sermon on the Mount. First Jesus said, \"Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-confession-and-repentance-remove-the-death-penalty-under-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":69367,"position":2},"title":"Would confession and repentance remove the death penalty under the Old Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If you break one of the Ten Commandments, does it mean that you sinned? Of course, the consequence, I believe, is death, correct? However, if you confess what you did and repented, then God forgives you and you don't have to die, correct? Answer: Each of the Ten Commandments\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52095,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/righteous-judgment-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":69367,"position":3},"title":"Righteous Judgment (Sermon)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: John 7:14-24 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It seems you can\u2019t listen or read the news with yet another person being accused of inappropriate behavior. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0People readily accept the bad news. The assumption that the person is guilty and so he is pressured to leave his job or be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60038,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-a-virgin-bride-did-not-bleed-on-her-wedding-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":69367,"position":4},"title":"What if a virgin bride did not bleed on her wedding night?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good evening Jeff, I recently got into a discussion with someone regarding Deuteronomy 22:13-21, specifically verses 15-17. He seems to think that the evidence being talked about here was blood, something I do not disagree with. I told him that I have heard that not every woman bleeds when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21222,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/john-and-witnesses\/","url_meta":{"origin":69367,"position":5},"title":"John and Witnesses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford Most Christians probably appreciate the significance of Habakkuk 2:4 (\u201cThe righteous one will live by his faith.\u201d) to understanding the New Testament, but the significance of Deuteronomy 19:15 often escapes us. 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