94 J. Duncan M. Derrett his doubts, saying, “What is this I hear of you? (Lk l6,2)”. That Z may be unwilling to negotiate through Y with a dubious X is all too likely27. Alternatively Z may repudiate Y’s credentials and refuse to deal with X through him. It remains Z’s option, especially if Y’s peculiarities alarm him (8,48.52;10,20). For Y to protest that he has repeated the “words” of X verbatim need not result in his transaction being qayyām; he may be truthful but the communication will be ineffective until the credit-worthiness of X is established, whereupon Y’s message may be received28. The position is different when the words of the principal are given due weight. Ἀληθής in this context means “legitimate” not in some translators’ use of “valid”-for the challenge (3,19) which in this case the message represents is genuine and deserves a serious response, like Yahweh’s many embassies to Israel29. In spite of this Jesus does manage to deliver his message (7,26.30-31; 8,20). 3. The solution: (B) Testimony. Jesus claims that his message represents what he heard in heaven, whither he will return (to report)30. Testimony is bātēl (“void”) if it is inadmissible or if the witness who offers testimony is himself disqualified (pāsûl). The testimony in either case may be entirely truthful31 but it is not “received” (3,32). The testimony of an eligible (kāšēr) witness is “credible” only in the sense that the court receives it. The list of ineligible witnesses is long and often quaint. It leans heavily on Ex 23,1 as its authority. Ineligibility (paslût) was evidently conceived as a rough and ready means of excluding testimony possibly vitiated by taint or bias. Moreover a kind of snobbism excluded witnesses of very low status. Pāsûl would include a person so “abased” as publicly to accept alms from the heathen (Jn 9,8)32. The mentally deranged and apostates33 are excluded. A seducer of the people (Mt 27,63; Jn 7,12) is ineligible, as also one who Agents testified about their powers: so Maimonides, Code, XII.IV. ii, 4.5. 27 Jn 3,11.32; 8.37.40. 28 Ex 16,28; 2 Sam 24,13; 2Kgs 2,2; Ιs 6,8; Jer 7,25. Lev. H. 22; Gen.R. 50. 29 Jn 3,13; 5,20; 6,38.42.46.50-51- Where God’s acts were copied: 5,29; 9,3-4. He is sent to 30 earth (10,36). The return (to report): 6,62; 7,33; 14,28; 16,10.17.28; 20,17. Maimonides, XIV.II.x, 1 (“Even if the evidence is truth (‘emet)). 31 Maimonides XIV.II. xi, 5. J.D.M. Derrett , “Dost thou teach us? Jn 9, 34c”, Downside 32 Review 116, no. 404 (1998) 183-94. For the potential of Ex 23,1 see Bovati, Re-establishing Justice, 207, 303 and n. 112. Maimonides, xi,10. 33