Apostolic Constitutions on Oaths

Apostolic Constitutions

Written in the Fourth Century. An expansion on previous Church order documents, the Didache and the Didascalia.

Apostolic Constitutions 5.2.12

Source: ANF 07:443

Wherefore it is the duty of a man of God, as he is a Christian, not to swear by the sun, or by the moon, or by the stars; nor by the heaven, nor by the earth, by any of the elements, whether small or great. For if our Master charged us not to swear by the true God, that our word might be firmer than an oath, nor by heaven itself, for that is a piece of heathen wickedness, nor by Jerusalem, nor by the sanctuary of God, nor the altar, nor the gift, nor the gilding of the altar, nor one’s own head, for this custom is a piece of Judaic corruption, and on that account was forbidden; and if He exhorts the faithful that their yea be yea, and their nay, nay, and says that “what is more than these is of the evil one,” how much more blameable are those who appeal to deities falsely so called as the objects of an oath, and who glorify imaginary beings instead of those that are real, whom God for their perverseness “delivered over to foolishness, to do those things that are not convenient!”

Apostolic Constitutions 6.4.23

Source: ANF 07:461

He who made a law for swearing rightly, and forbade perjury, has now charged us not to swear at all.

 Ὁ εὐορκεῖν νομοθετήσας καὶ τὸ ἐπιορκεῖν ἀπαγορεύσας τὸ μηδ' ὀμνῦναι παρήγγειλεν

Apostolic Constitutions 7.1.3

Source: ANF 07:466

[Expansion on Didache]

“Thou shalt not forswear thyself; for it is said, “Thou shalt not swear at all.”1261 But if that cannot be avoided, thou shalt swear truly; for “every one that swears by Him shall be commended.” “Thou shalt not bear false witness;” for “he that falsely accuses the needy provokes to anger Him that made him.”