Misrepresenting God Or Bearing False Witness Against God?

by on July 23, 2025 | Comment

Did Paul Allude To The Ninth Commandment In 1 Corinthians 15:15?

Christ (and his apostles) lived a millennium and a half before the invention of the printing press; as individuals, they did not own Bibles (or any other books). Most would have encountered the Old Testament Scriptures only when they were read in the Temple or the synagogues. A few, such as Paul, would likely have had access to manuscripts (handwritten copies) of some of those Scriptures by virtue of their relationship with a prominent rabbi: “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day” (Acts 22:3; emphasis added). The provincial governor Festus was aware that Paul enjoyed such privileged access to manuscripts, and, in his exasperation with Paul, said, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind” (Acts 26:24). The word translated “learning” is grammata (γράμματα), the ordinary Greek word for “writings.” Thus, Paul’s “great” or “much” learning was probably a reference to his study of the Jewish “writings” that we know as the Old Testament. Nearly all of Paul’s citations of the Old Testament were citings of the Greek translation of the Old Testament made in the middle of the third century BC and known to us as the “Septuagint,” or LXX. We may safely assume that the Greek Old Testament was as influential over Paul as the King James Bible was in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries of the English-speaking world (including over people such as Abraham Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address). It is legitimate, therefore, and possibly helpful in considering Paul’s letters if we can discern his allusions to the LXX in his own writings. I suggest that Paul alluded to the ninth commandment (Exod 20:16), which prohibits false witness, in 1 Corinthians 15:15.

The Hebrew of the ninth commandment is fairly straightforward and is similar to many of the English translations: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exod 20:16).1 The LXX, however, contains an interesting redundancy: “You shall not falsely witness against your neighbor a false witness” (οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις κατὰ τοῦ πλησίον σου μαρτυρίαν ψευδῆ). Note the redundancy; the verb, “bear false witness” (ψευδομαρτυρέω) is made of the adjective, “false” (ψευδής), and the verb “witness” (μαρτυρέω), so there is no need for the accusative direct object, “false witness” (μαρτυρίαν ψευδῆ), which was already included in the verb itself. Note also that the Greek employs the preposition, kata (κατὰ), which with a genitive is ordinarily translated as “against.” 2 So here, Exodus 20:16 would be translated as, “against your neighbor,” as it is in many English translations. The Hebrew prepositions are notoriously flexible, and the ḇᵉ (בְָ) here is probably translated by the LXX by kata (κατὰ) with the genitive (“against”) due to contextual concern for the “witness” (ꜥēḏ) in legal proceedings. The LXX therefore, does not prohibit a false witness “about” a neighbor, but prohibits a false witness “against” a neighbor, perhaps especially in legal matters.3

The thesis I am exploring is whether Paul (himself profoundly influenced by the LXX) was referring to Exodus 20:16 in 1 Corinthians 15:15: “We are even found to be misrepresenting God [ψευδομάρτυρες τοῦ θεοῦ], because we testified about God [ὅτι ἐμαρτυρήσαμεν κατὰ τοῦ θεοῦ] that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised” (ESV). Here also the nominal equivalent “false witnesses” (ψευδομάρτυρες) of the verb “witness” (μαρτυρέω) from the LXX is employed, and then “witness” is employed a second time (without the prefix “false”). The ESV misses the play that is there in Greek, because it translates the phrases as “misrepresenting” rather than “false witnessing,” and “testified about God” rather than “witnessed about God.” Several other English translations preserve the Greek duplication of the witness language (emphasis added):

“And we are found also false witnesses of God; for we have witnessed concerning God that he raised the Christ, whom he has not raised if indeed [those that are] dead are not raised.” (Darby)

“Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we bore witness against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.” (LSB)

“Beyond that, we are even found to be false witnesses about God, because we have borne witness about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.” (Mounce)

“And we be found false witnesses of God, for we have said witnessing against God, that he raised Christ, whom he raised not, if dead men rise not again.” (WYC)

My point is not to insist that duplicating “witness” language is preferable to duplicating “testify” language, either of which could/would work, and retain the redundancy. If it was Paul’s intention to allude to Exodus 20:16, however, it would be preferable to use the English “witness” to preserve the allusion. Reading the ESV, one would not even notice a lexical similarity to the prohibition of false “witness” in Exodus 20:16, whereas the lexical similarity is much clearer in those translations which duplicate the “witness” language in English.

Additionally, 1 Corinthians 15:15 (ESV) says “we testified about God,” even though the Greek says “witnessed against God”—which as stated earlier, is the meaning of the kata with genitive construction (κατὰ τοῦ θεοῦ)—just as it does in Exodus 20:16, which reads “witness against your neighbor” (κατὰ τοῦ πλησίον σου). The ESV translates kata with genitive correctly as “against” in Exodus 20:16, but translates it as “about” in 1 Corinthians 15:15. To their credit, several English translations do use the kata-with-genitive in its more common sense of “against” (emphasis added):

“We are found to be false witnesses about God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, when he didn’t raise him if it’s the case that the dead aren’t raised.” (CEB)

“And we are even found to be false-witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He did raise Christ—Whom He did not raise if-indeed then dead ones are not raised.” (DLNT)

“Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God: because we have given testimony against God, that he hath raised up Christ; whom he hath not raised up, if the dead rise not again.” (DRA)

“Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we bore witness against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.” (LSB)

“And also we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if after all, then, the dead are not raised.” (LEB)

“Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised.” (NABRE)

“Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.” (NASB)

“Also, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified against God that he raised Christ from the dead, when in reality he did not raise him, if indeed the dead are not raised.” (NET)

“And we be found false witnesses of God, for we have said witnessing against God, that he raised Christ, whom he raised not, if dead men rise not again.” (WYC)

Such translations come tantalizingly close to recognizing an echo of Exodus 20:16 in 1 Corinthians 15:15. Whether they do or do not, I do. Note that the second clause is explanatory of the first, because the second clause begins with “because” (ὅτι), explaining the previous clause more precisely. The first clause is indeed somewhat ambiguous: “false witnesses about God” or “false witnesses of God.” The second clause, however, connected with the “because,” narrows the range of kata-with-genitive to its ordinary meaning: “against God.” Note that the two clauses, each containing a use of the witness-stock, effectively contain the redundancy of Exodus 20:16:

Exodus 20:16
“You shall not falsely witness a false witness against your neighbor.”
(οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις κατὰ τοῦ πλησίον σου μαρτυρίαν ψευδῆ)		 1 Corinthians 15:15
“ . . . false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God.”
(ψευδομάρτυρες τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅτι ἐμαρτυρήσαμεν κατὰ τοῦ θεοῦ)

Note that each is redundant about “witnessing,” and that each qualifies the “witnessing” as “false,” and “against” either one’s neighbor or “against” God. It is surely not unreasonable to assume Paul’s familiarity with the decalogue, since he cites four of its commands in Romans 13:9, and since the original ten words of the covenant were such a prominent feature of Jewish life. I suggest, therefore, that we consider the possibility that Paul intentionally alluded to Exodus 20:16 in his statement about the apostolic testimony about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:15.

The only cross reference my Bibles (Greek or English) have for 1 Corinthians 15:15 is Acts 2:24, when the apostles affirmed the resurrection. None of mine seems to notice the profound lexical similarities to the ninth commandment in the LXX. If I am right, Paul’s thinking is a fortiori: If it is a violation of God’s law to bear false witness against one’s neighbor, it is surely even more a violation of God’s law to bear false witness against God himself. And to deny the resurrection is to bear false witness against God, who raised his Son from the dead.

Since the briefest essence of the gospel is probably that which is preserved in Romans 4:25, which refers to Christ as the one “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification,” to deny the resurrection is to testify against God the Father, who raised his holy Son. Since the Father’s not sparing his Son but giving him up for us (Rom 8:32) was such a remarkable display of redemptive love, Paul argued that to deny the resurrection is to bear false witness not against merely our neighbor, but against God himself.

Notes

  1. לֹא־תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר
  2. Greek is a case-based language. Partnered with different cases, prepositions can have a distinct meaning, as with kata/κατὰ.
  3. The Westminster Larger Catechism 145 suggests as much: “The sins forbidden in the ninth commandment are, all prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbors, as well as our own, especially in public judicature” (emphasis added).

©T. David Gordon. All Rights Reserved.

RESOURCES

Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

    Post authored by:

  • T. David Gordon
    Author Image

    Dr. T. David Gordon is a teaching elder in The Presbytery of the Ascension. Before retirement, he taught at Gordon-Conwell Seminary (1984–98) and Grove City College (1999–2021).

    More by T. David Gordon ›

Subscribe to the Heidelblog today!


Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments are welcome but must observe the moral law. Comments that are profane, deny the gospel, advance positions contrary to the Reformed confession, or that irritate the management are subject to deletion. Anonymous comments, posted without permission, are forbidden. Please use a working email address so we can contact you, if necessary, about content or corrections.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.