Talk:Testimony

message: Should we include the religious definition of "testimony" here? Bccomm 11:58, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: The philosical definition is just any stuff your told. See Testimony, philosophical problems of. --JK the unwise 18:52, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Philosophy 

message: Isn't this law section ridiculously US-centric?
You're right. Feel free to add any examples you have from elsewhere.  Or you could just whine about the work someone else did. Either way.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.196.140.214 (talk) 02:08, 6 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: law

message: Etymology is cited as follows:-
(pl. testes), 1704, from L. testis "testicle," usually regarded as a special application of testis "witness" (see testament), presumably because it "bears witness" to virility (cf. Gk. parastates, lit. "one that stands by;" and Fr. slang témoins, lit. "witnesses"). But Buck thinks Gk. parastatai "testicles" has been wrongly associated with the legal sense of parastates "supporter, defender" and suggests instead parastatai in the sense of twin "supporting pillars, props of a mast," etc. Walde, meanwhile, suggests a connection between testis and testa "pot, shell, etc." 
Presumably, this was because only men could bear witness in ancient Rome.  Nowadays no such restriction exists and it would be inaccurate to use this word when a woman bears witness.  Therefore when a woman gives evidence, the word to use should be "BREASTIFY". (Unsigned comment added 6th August 2005 by 203.186.238.232)
:On a similar note someone added:
::'The word "Testimony" comes from an ancient Roman tradition in which men would verify promises by putting a hand on their testicles.'
:As its the users only ever edit, and is unsourced I removed it for now, if it happens to be true then I think someone will have to show a reputable source or most people will probably assume its a joke. Sfnhltb 14:02, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Testify and testimony derive from Latin testis, meaning "witness". The etymology of the second meaning of "testis", i.e. "testicle", is uncertain, according to the OED2. Lewis and Short also have two distinct lemmas for testis. Any connection between the two senses is speculative, and there doesn't seem to be a consensus among scholars as to whether the two senses are or aren't related. --MarkSweep (call me collect) 05:34, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Testify 

message: I have to disagree with all the naysayers on this. The word originally came from ancient Judea, and it was a rite in which a hand was placed on an elder's testes. I recently read this in Will Durant's Story of Civilization, The Age of Faith. If this is wrong then someone refute it, but this act was literally performed in ancient Judea.
In the Bible Abraham has someone put his hand under Abraham’s thigh to swear an oath on the children he had been promised by God. Some have thought that the person was to put the hand on Abraham’s circumcision, the symbol of the covenant.
Tyhou (talk) 01:26, 4 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Testimony's Hebraic origin

message: Testicle, diminutive of testis, a witness. (Latin) Witness of manhood.
Source: An etymological dictionary of the English language By Walter William Skeat, page 633. Link  USchick (talk) 13:30, 23 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Etymology

message: Substituted at 07:52, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment

message: I think these should be split per WP:CONSPLIT, and Christian testimony should be set up as a separate article - we don't usually discuss the biblical tradition or uses of a word in our law articles, its meaning in NT is at times broader then the legal usage (as in Matt. 10:18 - not WP:OR, the analysis and cited verse are from the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology) Seraphim System (talk) 03:46, 25 May 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Fully concur. --Coolcaesar (talk) 00:13, 23 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Splitting religious and legal testimony 

message: Here is my brainstorming on how to clean it up.  
First, the legal and religious definitions should be split, as suggested above. 
Second, the legal definition is a mess. I am going to revise the legal definition to clearly explain first what testimony should be (normally based on percipient knowledge) before diving into the lay/expert witness dichotomy. 
The discussions of what is acceptable expert witness testimony and of objections are way too long because we already have separate articles on those.  So I will shorten those up. Coolcaesar (talk) 16:08, 21 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  This article is a total mess