WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
THE HISTORY OF OATH TAKING
From the beginning of time oaths were part of a major way of life. As a student of Christian history, I believe this is a moment to understand why oaths are so important, as well as how they came to be such an important tradition.
WHAT IS AN OATH?
Some philosophers and anthropologists define an oath as a ritual act, or more specifically a “speech act.”
An oath is one kind of speech act. Taking an oath expresses a specific intention to others, using words like “I promise to” or “I swear that.” The intention when taking an oath is not limited to the moment someone articulates the words of the oath.
Oath-taking is also about the intention in the future to commit to act in a certain way. One example is the vows taken by couples during their wedding in front of witnesses.
British philosopher John L. Austin called oaths “performative utterances.” The engaged couple, for example, declare their act of marrying each other by speaking their vows to each other. They make a deliberate choice of their own free will.
ROMAN SOLDIERS AND ALLEGIANCE
In antiquity, oaths were often demanded of religious and governmental leaders, as well as those in certain professions. In ancient Rome, oaths were also demanded of soldiers.
The most solemn military oath – directly invoking the Roman gods – was the “sacramentum.” By this oath, soldiers swore allegiance to their specific general or commanding consul and, later, to the emperor. Disobedience could earn severe punishments.
On some occasions, oath-breaking was tested by resorting to divine intervention. The virgin goddess Vesta was one of the most important in Roman religion. Her priestesses, the Vestals, or Vestal Virgins, therefore took an oath of chastity for their 30-year term of service tending to the ever-burning sacred fire of Rome, Vesta’s sacred hearth, as well as other rites.
Vestals accused of breaking that oath were judged by the high priest of Rome. Since a priestess was a sacred person, her blood could not be shed. If found guilty, the priestess was buried alive, with a lamp and a little food, and left to the judgment of Vesta. If any condemned Vestal were innocent, it was believed that surely the goddess would free her from her living death.
OATHS IN THE MIDDLE AGES
In medieval Europe, Christians continued to take oaths. The religious and secular worlds were closely interconnected for most of these centuries, and most oaths referred to Christian beliefs.
In the early Middle Ages, Christians took oaths in the name of God, often while holding a religious object like a relic of a saint or a book of the Gospels.
In most cases, oaths were not strictly person to person, but involved the wider community in some important way. Kings took coronation oaths, swearing to rule justly and safeguard the people of the kingdom; lesser nobles took oaths of fealty to greater nobles, often for protection and material advantage.
Religious leaders like bishops and abbots also became part of this oath-based system, since they, too, had secular jurisdiction over important tracts of land. Breaking an oath was believed to bring down the wrath of God in time, but other than that, upholding one’s personal honor and reputation within the local community was a key consideration.
Until the early 13th century, Christian rites would accompany the earlier Germanic practice of trial by ordeal. In these earlier centuries, most local people accused of a crime could be found not guilty by compurgation – that is, through oaths made by other respected members of the community testifying to the accused’s honest character.
In other cases, often involving strangers to the local community, the accused could be cleared only by a divine intervention.
After a night of fasting and prayer, the accused would undergo a physical ordeal, like carrying a heated block of iron over a set number of steps or by being thrown into a pond to sink or float.
If the accused did not develop blisters or was “accepted” by the water and sank, that was understood as God’s declaration of his innocence. As time went on, scholars and ordinary people increasingly criticized the reliability of trials by ordeal.
By the 13th century, the procedures of the court trial were defined and adopted, both in canon law – that is, the church law – and in secular law.
WHY OATHS MATTER
When drafting the U.S. Constitution in 1787, the Founding Fathers rejected some of the legal practices of the British system of law. One such rejection was of the “religious test.”
In Great Britain, all office holders had to affirm the religious doctrines of the Church of England. But in the independent United States, there was to be no such religious restriction placed on federal officeholders. Preserving religious liberty was a primary concern protected by the Constitution.
One of the British legal practices the Founding Fathers did include in the Constitution was the swearing of oaths upon entering federal governmental service. However, these oaths were not taken to pledge loyalty to a single monarch, but to “protect and defend” the Constitution itself.
But “swearing-in ceremonies” communicate far more. Supreme Court justices take two oaths, one judicial, and the other constitutional. The oath ceremony is still a serious performative utterance.
The appointees take these oaths in front of witnesses, who are themselves representative of the entire community the appointees will serve.
Appointees to the Supreme Court commit themselves, not to a partisan political agenda, and not to a cult of personality or to the judgment of popular opinion. They commit themselves to “protect and defend the Constitution” and “administer justice without respect to persons … faithfully and impartially.”
Justices might be impeached by Congress for failing in “good behavior.” But in practice, justices serve for life, until death or retirement, and are bound in good conscience to carry out their “duties” as they have sworn to do.
The conscience of appointees, not the preservation of their personal reputations, has been the focus of these “oaths of office” for almost 250 years. This is as true today as it was in 1787.
Presidents and other political leaders are sworn into office. We take an oath when we are a witness for a court trial. “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” The Boy Scouts have an oath that they take. “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” We also stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance here in the United States at major national events.
Cross my heart and hope to die! Stick a needle in my eye! Is a phrase that we may have all heard or used at one time or another, usually when we are children.
And R&B music artists All-4-One wrote their 1994 hit love song, “I Swear”
I swear by the moon and the stars in the skies
And I swear like the shadow that’s by your side
I’ll be there. For better or worse, till death do us part
I’ll love you with every beat of my heart. And I swear.
Our lesson today is thus titled. I swear. Not because I do. But that is the topic Jesus is covering in this portion of our Sermon on the Mount series.
These statements are often added to a promise or a statement to emphasize how serious we are about being honest and telling the truth. It’s sometimes cute, but it’s also been said that already at a young age, children are subtly being taught that they have wiggle room in what we say to whether something is true or not.
The need to take this extreme oath to emphasize when we are speaking complete truth reveals that there are other times when we blur the line between truthfulness and dishonesty. I was speaking with someone recently when it came up the phrase, “To be completely honest” was uttered. As though we are never completely honest.
Remember last week, we mentioned the two Rabbinic schools. The Shammai was the stricter and they taught and believed that if you could not speak 100% truth, you shouldn’t say anything. The phrase “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all” comes from this ancient school. It was so stringent that if a bride wasn’t beautiful at her wedding, you wouldn’t say, “Oh you look so beautiful” even though we today say such things because it is mostly true. Women on their wedding day do look very beautiful because of how much they have done to look that way. But if you didn’t believe that about a woman the Shammai would say, don’t say it. And if someone asked, you had to tell them what you find unappealing about her! Can you imagine?! The Shammai would take an oath of 100% honesty even if it hurt someone’s feelings because they held truth to that standard.
Today’s passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount speaks to these kinds of oaths. Let’s read our passage for this morning.
MATTHEW 5:33-37
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
This is the fourth of the six antithesis passages in the Sermon on the Mount. This teaching of Jesus, “You have heard that it was said…” is countered by an additional truth about the rule and laws they had known. Jesus is again countering the misinterpretation of the scribes and the Pharisees and turns the ethics of this world on its head.
This is the first of the antitheses that Jesus does not directly quote the Ten Commandments. The traditional teaching that Jesus quotes here was a composite of ideas based on a few passages:
LEVITICUS 19:12
You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
NUMBERS 30:2
If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
DEUTERONOMY 23:21-23
21 “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.
The two vows mentioned here are from two different, but related, Greek terms. The first is from the verb epiorkeô, which means to perjure oneself, to swear falsely, to swear falsely/make false vows. The second is from the noun horkos, which literally means to enclose, as with a fence, or to bind together. The truth of an oath or vow is enclosed, bound, and therefore strengthened by that which is invoked on its behalf.
A clear description of an oath is given in the book of Hebrews:
HEBREWS 6:16
For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.
Today, we live in a different world. The idea that a person’s word is their bond is no longer trustworthy. Making a deal with just a handshake is too trusting because many would break that bond. This reality is not new; it was alive and well in Jesus’ day.
The rabbis and scribes of old said, “You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord.” The scribe created loopholes that distinguished between different types of oaths.
Jesus wanted nothing to do with this. We read that in his message. Verses 34-36 make this clear. Disciples of Jesus are to be characterized by such honesty and integrity that an oath of any kind is completely unnecessary.
When they swore by heaven or by earth, they were taking what was God’s throne and his creation and making them less significant than they were and making our words more important than God’s. Jesus says that we should have such a reputation that when we say yes to something, people believe us that we said yes. Or that when we say no, they know we mean no.
James puts it in similar words in his letter.
JAMES 5:12
But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
We must be people of integrity. People of truth. Three principles we need to remember about what we say:
Everything we say is witnessed by God.
He hears us. He hears our thoughts and knows our attitudes. And he wants us to remain trustworthy and holy. What God hears is from our hearts and God wants our hearts to remain loyal to Him.
Everything we say should be true and good.
God wants us to be trustworthy and holy because we represent God. Not only does it embarrass God when we don’t tell the truth, but it tarnishes His reputation and ours. If we cannot be trusted, then the Gospel will not be heard or trusted.
Jesus would later condemn the Pharisees for this.
MATTHEW 23:16-22
16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
Everything you say has eternal consequences.
When we bind ourselves to an oath, we are bound to it whether we do it or not. When we bind ourselves to heaven or earth or Jerusalem. Or if we swear to God or on the graves of relatives, we are saying, we want God to determine our fate based on those things rather than on the blood of Jesus. It diminishes the seriousness of our word.
In any and all circumstances, be a person who speaks the truth. Be a person who is known to always be honest. It will reflect the character of the God and the kingdom to which you belong.
INVITATION
