Ludolph of Saxony, Vita Christi, Part 1, Chapter 34

Ludolph of Saxony, Vita Christi, Part 1, Chapter 34

Written 14^th Century.

Source: Ludolph of Saxony, The life of Jesus Christ, Part 1 (Volume 1, Chapters 1-40). Cistercian Studies Series 267. Trans. Milton T. Walsh. Liturgical Press. Collegeville, MN, USA. 2018.

Christ’s Teaching on Oaths

Having taught that we must avoid anger and lust so as not to injure our neighbor, the Lord now forbids the taking of oaths and perjury so that we will not offend God, and he gives the proper interpretation to a precept in the old law forbidding perjury. The Jews were of the opinion that this commandment simply forbade lying under oath, but that an illicit oath must still be honored and that a rash oath, for which there is no need, is nonetheless licit. But the Savior says we should not swear for any reason; this does not include oaths that are required, but all useless oaths.

Justice according to the Pharisees meant not committing perjury. The Lord confirms this by forbidding swearing: this is the justice of those who are to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Just as a person who keeps silent cannot speak falsely, so one who does not swear cannot commit perjury. We read that in the multitude of words there shall not want sin, so in the multitude of swearing there shall not want perjury. The Lord had commanded the Jews to offer him sacrifices according to the law, not because these were pleasing to him, but so that they would not offer them to idols, as had been their custom in the past. Similarly, as a concession to their weakness he allowed them to swear by God, not because this was pleasing to him, but because it was less wicked for them to swear by him than by some creature. Jerome writes, “The Law required his people to swear by God alone; not that this was a good thing, but it was better than their custom of swearing by creatures, thereby offering them the homage due to God. The Gospel does not admit of oaths, because every statement of a faithful Christian should be like sworn testimony.”

According to Chrysostom,

Swearing of any kind is not permitted to us. Why is it necessary to swear, since we are not permitted to lie for any reason? Should not all our words always be so true that they can be trusted as absolutely as if we had sworn an oath? The Lord forbids not only perjury but the taking of an oath so that it cannot be thought that an oath is needed to guarantee the veracity of what we say, and that we might be suspected of lying if we are not speaking under oath. An oath is taken for one reason: to guarantee the truthfulness of what we say. But the Lord does not choose to distinguish between what we say under oath and anything else we say. Just as what we say under oath should be devoid of treachery, so what we speak should be free of falsehood. Both perjury and lying will be punished by divine Judgment. Whoever speaks swears to be truthful, as it is written: A faithful witness will not lie. It is not without reason that the holy Scriptures frequently exhort us not to swear: God is truthful and knows what we say, so every word we speak should be uttered as if under oath.

Seneca writes, “There is no difference between swearing an oath and making an affirmation: you should know that religion and faith are involved whenever the truth is handled.” Augustine points out that people who swear call God to be their witness, but it is laughable to think that they have not sworn because they did not say “by God,” but rather, for God is my witness, behold, before God, I do not lie, or God knows that I do not lie.

Therefore the Lord commanded us not to swear at all, that is, not to swear on every occasion or in every case because this would be a rash oath, but he did not exclude taking an oath when this is required. Here the negative precedes the universally affirmative statement, which is equivalent to its contradiction; if it came after the statement, it would be equivalent to its contrary. He did not say omnino non iurare: this would mean that there is no situation in which an oath should be taken, which is false: there are occasions when we should take an oath and other occasions when we should not. He said non iurare omnino, that is, do not take an oath on every occasion. His meaning is not that there is no occasion for swearing, but that it should be done only when absolutely necessary; needless swearing constitutes a rash oath. Therefore, Augustine says, the Lord did not command us not to swear at all because to do so is unlawful, but to curb those who think that oaths are good in themselves and swear easily, and by force of habit fall into false swearing.

There are three requirements for an oath to be proper. The first pertains to the matter about which the oath is taken, that is, the truth; otherwise, there is nothing suitable to be confirmed. The second pertains to the motivation for swearing, that is, to reach a judgment; if this is not the purpose, there is no need to take an oath. The third pertains to the person swearing, that is, the need for justice or discretion; if this is lacking there is the danger of swearing falsely. Hence the prophet Jeremiah says, And you shall swear: As the Lord lives, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice.

It is not only unlawful to swear rashly by God; it is also wrong to swear by creatures, inasmuch as divine power shines out through them. Hence Christ adds, “neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, and it is from there above all that his glory shines out; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, because it is his humblest creation; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, that is of God, the King of Kings, and the place chosen by him as the center of worship.” To underscore this divine element he adds, “Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black, for this is God’s work, not yours.”

What Jesus is saying here is that just as we should not swear by God, so we should not swear by creatures: because any creature is God’s creation, to swear by the creature is to swear by God. We are also forbidden to swear by creatures lest we give divine honors to what is God’s handiwork, and also to avoid committing perjury by taking a false oath by creatures. (Some believe that swearing by created things is tantamount to swearing by nothing, and the oath is not binding.) Sometimes people swear on the cross or on the gospels, that is, by him to whom these objects are dedicated. This also holds true for swearing on the relics of the saints: in this case we are honoring God’s power rather than a saint’s because he is their Maker, and all the good they possess comes from him.

He who forbids us to swear tells us what to do instead: “But let your speech be yes, yes, no, no: simply affirm what is true and deny what is false.” His repetition of yes and no suggests that our mouth expresses externally what is in our heart. We fulfill this gospel precept of yes, yes, no, no when we affirm or deny with both our lips and our heart. Therefore, let what is in our conscience be on our lips, let what is real be in our mouth, and let what is in our mouth also be in our works. Let us prove by our deeds what we affirm in our speech, and not profess by action what we deny in speech.

Christ goes on to say, “That which is over and above these, to swear, is of evil, that is, comes from weakness and suspicion because the person will not be believed unless he swears.” He does not say, “It is evil,” because you do not do evil if you make use of an oath properly—not because it is good in itself, but because it is required to persuade others when proposing something helpful to them. He says, “It is of evil,” that is, it manifests the weakness of another party who compels you to take an oath, when you see that he or she is slow to believe what will be of use to them, and they will not credit it unless you so swear.

There is always an element of evil here, either on the part of person who swears unnecessarily or on the part of the one who demands it. It is either an evil done when an oath is insisted on unnecessarily, or an evil suffered because of a weakness inherent in the human race that we do not take one another at our word without an oath.

Let us speak the truth and commend it by the probity of our conduct rather than a torrent of oaths. And when talking, let us speak plainly and not send other messages by gesture or expression, for such behavior also is of evil. We read in Proverbs, A man that is an apostate, an unprofitable man, walks with a perverse mouth, he winks with the eyes, presses with the foot, speaks with the finger. It is foolish to imitate this unprofitable man and speak with the finger; more foolish still to speak with the hand, because this has five fingers, and it follows that someone who speaks with arms and shoulders is most foolish of all. Moreover, those wild gesticulations and tremors of the head make a person look possessed. It is expedient for us restrain all bodily movements when speaking so as not to give others occasion for scandal.