It’s the 90’s and you’re at your high school (or junior high) dance and “I Swear” by All-4-One comes on. You’re excited to slow dance with the one you like and you mouth the lyrics,

“And I swear
By the moon and the stars in the skies
I’ll be there
I swear
Like the shadow that’s by your side
I’ll be there
For better or worse
‘Til death do us part
I’ll love you with every beat of my heart
And I swear
Ooh”

Fast forward twenty-five years later and reading through the New Testament you find out that Jesus and James had something to say about swearing. Jesus said (Matt. 5:34), “Do not take an oath at all,” and James reiterates Jesus’ teaching when he says, (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.”

Swearing (that is to say oath taking, not bad language) is widespread place in our culture. Phrases like, “I swear to God,” “I swear on my mother’s grave,” “I could have sworn,” and “I swear” are commonplace. As such, I thought it time to dive further into oath taking/swearing in Scripture. And what I found was straightforward and a bit complicated at the same time, not to mention coupled with different historical interpretations. What follows is a biblical-theological approach to wrapping our minds around the use of oaths.

God took Oaths

When God called Abraham and set him apart for His purposes, God made a promise and swore an oath to him. Hebrews 6:13 says, “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.” Luke reiterates this (Luke 1:73) when Zechariah prophesies concerning “the oath that he swore to our father Abraham.” The context of Hebrews 6 teaches us why God took such an oath (6:17). He did this to give the heirs of Abraham strong encouragement and comfort regarding His unchangeable decision. Thus, “The unchanging purpose of God provides a strong reason for emulating the trust and steadfastness of Abraham.”¹

William Lane is insightful here in understanding God’s use of an oath. He states, “In view of the context and the focus on the Christian community in vv 17–18, it would appear to be proper to regard the promise given to Abraham and confirmed with an oath as the type that is given to the community of the new covenant in Christ.”² He continues, “The word of promise confirmed with an oath reveals the irrevocable character of God’s will and provides his people with strong encouragement to obey him with unwavering confidence.”³

Thus, when the Lord swears an oath, He is not doing it for Himself, as if His word is not enough and needs further support, but for His people that they may understand the unchanging reality of His word. In the old testament, Yahweh swears multiple self-obligations: “by ‘himself’ (Gen 22:16; Exod 32:13; Isa 45:23; Jer 22:5; 49:13), by ‘his just and powerful arm’ (Isa 62:8), by ‘his personal life’ (…Amos 6:8; Jer 51:14), by ‘his holiness’ (Amos 4:2; Psa 89:36), by the ‘pride of Jacob,’ i.e., himself (Amos 8:7), and perhaps also by “his faithfulness” (Psa 89:50).”⁴

D. A. Carson sums it up well when he says, “In the Scriptures God himself “swears” (e.g., Gen 9:9–11; Luke 1:68, 73; cf. Ps 16:10 and Acts 2:27–31), not because he sometimes lies, but in order to help men believe (Heb 6:17).”⁵

For additional examples, see Genesis 26:3, Deut. 7:8, and Jeremiah 11:5.

Oaths Were Commanded/Practiced in the Mosaic Covenant

The Israelites were commanded to swear by God’s name in the Mosaic covenant. Deut. 6:13 states, “It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.” The question is, what does swearing by God’s name mean? In Hebrew language swearing “practically never confirmed an existing circumstance with an oath but assumed a future obligation.”⁶ That is to say, swearing was not seeking to involve God in confirming a present truth someone says, but rather promising before God to do something, much like a vow.

In the context of Deut. 6:13, “‘[T]o swear by Yahweh’ is practically synonymous with ‘to confess allegiance to Yahweh.’ This circumstance is precisely expressed in Isa 19:18; cf. 45:23; 2 Chron 15:14f. with ‘to obligate oneself to Yahweh’…. In Deut ‘to swear in the name of Yahweh’ parallels ‘to fear him, serve him, adhere to him’ (Deut 6:13; 10:10).”⁷ Thus, it seems that swearing in the Mosaic covenant is another way of confessing faith and allegiance to the Lord.

Johannes Schneider insightfully states, “In Israel the Law prescribed (Dt. 6:13; 10:20) that oaths should be by Yahweh. Israel’s monotheism found expression here in the fact that only the oath by Yahweh was permitted; all other gods were excluded. Hence the oath is a solemn confession of the one God, cf. Is. 19:18; 45:23; 48:1; Jer. 12:16. False swearing was condemned as an abuse of the name of God, Ex. 20:7; Lv. 19:12. Swearing by other gods was idolatry, Jer. 5:7; 12:16; Zeph. 1:5; Am. 8:14; Hos. 4:15.”⁸

Additional examples:

• Numbers 5:21 - then’ (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) ‘the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell.
• Joshua 2:17 - The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear.

Jesus Condemns Oaths

Jesus stated, “³⁴But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

The issue Jesus addressed was the truthfulness of speech. Historically, people would bind their words to something in order to indicate the weight of their words. People may move from swearing by God to swearing by something a little lesser and a little safer, such as the earth. Or even a little lesser and safer—Jerusalem. Jesus commands this to stop. People are to simply tell the truth instead of seeking something to indicate how serious they are. John Nolland says, “The challenge is to stand, as far as one’s word is concerned, nakedly on one’s own integrity: neither by the introduction of an oath implicitly to downgrade the commitedness of one’s word without an oath nor by the use of the oath to seek to take hostage the honour of anything else to our own claim to truthfulness. Nothing by which I might swear can be made to carry responsibility for my truthfulness; the responsibility is my own.”⁹

Jesus Answered under Oath

Later in the same Gospel of Matthew, Jesus answered the High Priest under oath. Matthew 26:63–64 pronounces, “⁶³But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” ⁶⁴Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Jesus’ situation and answer is a bit tricky. The High Priest cuts to the chase and wants to know before God Almighty if He really is the Messiah, the Son of God. The High Priests words, “I adjure you is a rare and formal expression (cf. 1 Kgs 22:16 for a similar Old Testament formula), invoking the name of God in order to compel a true answer.”¹⁰ R. T. France continues, “This is therefore the climax of the hearing, and Jesus’ answer will be the crucial evidence. Even if (on the principle enunciated in 5:34–37) Jesus disapproves of the ‘oath’ element in the question, he can hardly fail to respond now.”¹¹

Does Jesus answer under the oath given to Him? Does Jesus simply respond with an answer without taking the oath given to Him? One thing we do know is that Jesus did not sin nor break His own words. Our interpretation must take that into account. D. A. Carson declares, “If Jesus refuses to answer, he breaks a legally imposed oath.”¹² Thus, it seems Jesus is placed under oath and answers accordingly, which would not be a sin against His own words, but rather enlightenment to us of His previous words. Therefore, if understood correctly, legal oaths are a different situation in which one may be obligated to answer a government official.

R. T. France offers a helpful solution when he states, “The oath ‘by the living God’ uses none of the evasive formulae which Jesus has dismissed in 5:34–36 and 23:16–22, but imposes the strongest possible sanction, echoing God’s own path formulae in the OT: ‘As I live, says the LORD.’”¹³

James Condemns Oaths

James states (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.”

Baker states, “[I]n this context [swear] does not mean using bad language, but rather ‘using God’s name or an unaccepted substitute to signify truthfulness or credibility.’”¹⁴ Vlachos confirms this when he says that swearing means “to affirm the truth of a statement by calling on a divine being to execute sanctions against a person if the statement in question is not true.”¹⁵ For example, someone might utter, “May God strike me dead if I am lying.”

Therefore, as Christians, we are not to add validation to our words by swearing upon God or anything else God created. This undermines your other speech when you do this, and involves God or commits God to your speech. Swearing is putting God into a position to act on your words, and can lead us into bad behavior. Christians should never involve God to verify their words with unique actions.

Doug Moo tackles the hard question at hand concerning the use of oaths. He states, “But does James (and Jesus before him) intend to prohibit all oaths? Many Christians in the Anabaptist tradition have concluded that this is the case and have refused by consequence to take oaths in the courtroom or anywhere else. However, it is doubtful that James intends to address the question of official oaths—oaths that others ask us to take for legal purposes. As the exhortation to let our ‘yes’ and ‘no’ suffice for themselves suggest, the issue seems to have been the voluntary oath—the oath taken to insure the truthfulness of what one had affirmed or promised.”¹⁶

Paul takes Oaths

Multiple times in 2 Corinthians Paul takes an oath. He says (in 2 Cor. 1:23), “But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.” Again, he says (in 2 Cor. 11:31), “The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.”

In the former verse Paul appeals to God as a witness in his telling to the Corinthians of why he did not come to them as planned. Paul had no other witnesses and thus called upon God as his witness. “In the absence of human witnesses who could vouch for his motivation in making or changing his travel plans, Paul appeals to the irrefutable knowledge of God.”¹⁷

In the latter verse, Murray J. Harris comments, “This solemn appeal to God’s knowledge of his truthfulness (cf. 11:11) was not, of course, a repudiation of Christ’s ban on unnecessary or frivolous oath-taking (cf. Matt. 5:33–37; cf. Jas. 5:12).”¹⁸ Could Paul’s use be akin to his charge in 2 Timothy 4:1?

Paul Put the Thessalonians under Oath

Paul addressed many matters in the Thessalonian church and to ensure they were heard and dealt with, Paul put this specific church under oath. He said (in 1 Thess. 5:27), “I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.” Before the Lord they were called to be faithful in this matter.

Oaths Today

After briefly surveying the use of oaths in Scripture, we are in a better position to reach conclusions for ourselves today. Above we discovered that oaths were taken by God and commanded to His people under the Mosaic covenant. However, Jesus came and forbid oaths, yet seemingly answered under oath Himself. James continued the teaching of Jesus, yet Paul took oaths and even commanded one church to act under oath. (If you read this without reading the study above, I encourage you to go back and read it all in context). In all of this, Jesus did not sin, nor did Paul, and neither did God.

Here is an attempt to put it all together.

1. Christians do not need nor should take oaths/swear. Our speech ought to be what we mean. We do not need objects or people to bring more validity to our words. Therefore, Christians ought to drop phrases such as “I swear,” “I swear to God,” “I swear on my life,” and “I swear on my mother’s grave.”

2. Christians may need to answer under legal oath. We may be called to testify in court and undergo a legal oath type formula. Our American court system may say, “Do you swear to tell the truth?” In such cases, it seems that Christians ought to answer with simple and honest words, even though we disagree with the swearing forumla. If our conscious may struggle with this in the moment, proper wording may still be offered in a way that answers but that does not approve of the oath/swearing formula. Jesus’ example may fall under this.

• R. T. France states, “They [oaths] should not be needed, but in practice they serve a remedial purpose in a world where the ethics of the kingdom of God are not always followed. Refusal to take a required oath can in such circumstances convey quite the wrong impression. Jesus’ illustration of the ‘greater righteousness’ are not to be treated as if they were a new set of literal regulations to replace those of the scribes and Pharisees.”¹⁹
• France declares, “That this ideal should not be taken as a rigid rule, e.g. with reference to oaths in court, is suggested by Jesus’ own response when the High Priest ‘put him on oath’ (26:63–64), and by occasional ‘oaths’ in the New Testament (2 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 1:20; cf. 1 Thess. 5:27); even God can use an oath (Heb. 6:13–17). But Jesus goes on to repudiate the use of ‘second-class’ oaths which avoid the name of God (and therefore are not binding). First they do not in fact exclude God, as heaven, earth and Jerusalem are all inseparably linked with God (as Jesus shows by references to Isa. 66:1 and Ps. 48:2 (v. 3, Heb.)), and even your head is God’s creation and under his control. And secondly, as v. 37 shows, they should be unnecessary.”²⁰

3. Christians of the past may have been put under apostolic oath. When Paul used oaths himself and put the Thessalonian church under oath, he seemed to be using them in a different way than Jesus forbid. I do not conclude that Jesus’ apostle was blatantly sinning here and disregarding Jesus’ teaching. Paul’s use may be possibly likened to doing something in God’s name similar to Colossians 3:23 where we do everything in the name of our Lord Jesus. Paul, as an apostle of Jesus, used oaths in a necessary way for the benefit of the church to receive his apostolic actions and for the church to walk in them. This may be similar to God swearing on His name for the benefit of Abraham’s descendants.

In conclusion, let us seek to speak the simple truth and avoid buffering our words with unnecessary support.