Augustine - Excerpts on Swearing

Against Academics, 3.16 

Written c.386 CE. See comment in Retractions 1.1.4 (written c.427 CE.).

Source: Augustine, 1951. "Against the Academics." p. 141. Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 12. Trans: John J. O'Meara.  Newman Press.

But you think I am making fun! I am prepared to swear by all that is holy that I am completely at a loss to know how that young man sinned, if one who does what seems probable to him, does not sin. The only possible answer I find is that they may say that to err and to sin are two entirely different things and that by their principles they had in mind that we should not err, while they considered sinning itself to be of no great consequence. 

Augustine, De Sermone Domini in Monte, Book 1.17 (Matt. 5.33-37), 51-53

Written c. 394 CE.

Source: Saint Augustine. 2010. Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount with Seventeen Related Sermons, p. 73-77. Translated by Denis J. Kavanagh. Vol. 11. The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation. CUA Press.

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(51) He says: ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, "Thou shalt not swear falsely, but fulfill thy oath to the Lord." But I say to you not to swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither do thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be, "Yes, yes"; "No, no." And whatever is over and above this, is from evil.' Not to swear falsely is the justice of the Pharisees. That justice is confirmed by him who forbids every kind of swearing. And this is the justice of the kingdom of heaven. For, just as a man cannot speak a falsehood if he does not speak at all, so neither can he swear falsely if he does not swear at all. But, inasmuch as a man is swearing if he is calling God as his witness, this passage must be carefully considered in order that the Apostle may not seem to have acted against this precept of the Lord, for he often swore in this manner. For instance, he says: 'But as to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I do not lie'; and again: 'The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is blessed forevermore, knows that I do not lie.' And the following also is similar: 'For God is my witness, Whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son, how unceasingly I always make mention of you in my prayers.' Or perhaps someone may say that no one really swears unless he uses the word 'by' in connection with that by which he swears, and, therefore, that the Apostle did not really swear by saying: 'God is my witness,' because he did not say: 'By God.' It would be ridiculous to hold this opinion. Nevertheless, lest anyone-because of dullards or the contentious-should think that it makes any difference, let him remember that the Apostle has sworn also in this manner; for he says: 'I die daily, by your glory.' And let no one think this expression is used in such a way as to mean: 'Your glory makes me die every day.' (Just as we say: 'By that man's teaching, he has become learned,' that is to say: 'By means of that man's teaching, it has come to pass that he is thoroughly taught'.) The Greek text determines the meaning, and in that text the expression is: 'Νὴ τὴν καύχησιν ὑμετέραν,' an expression that is not used except by one who is taking an oath. The Lord's prohibition of swearing is to be understood, therefore, as meaning that no one is to desire an oath as if it were something good, lest  ̶  through a habit engendered by the constant repetition of swearing he gradually descend to false swearing. Accordingly, let a man restrain himself as much as he can, since he understands that swearing is not to be counted among the things that are good, but as one of the things that are necessary. Let him make use of it only through necessity. In other words, let him not use it except when he sees that, unless men are assured by an oath, they are averse to believing what it is to their benefit to believe. This is the import of the saying, 'But let your speech be, “Yes, yes"; “No, no.'" This is good, and desirable. But, ‘whatever is over and above, is from evil.' In other words, if you are forced to take an oath, remember that the necessity for it arises from the infirmity of those whom you are trying to persuade with regard to something. And of course this is the evil from which we make daily supplication to be delivered, when we say, 'Deliver us from evil.' Consequently, He did not say, 'Whatever is over and above, is evil.' For you do no evil when you make good use of an oath which, although it is not a good thing, is nevertheless necessary for the purpose of persuading someone to believe what you are trying to induce him to believe for a good purpose. But He said that it is 'from evil,' that is, from the evil of the man whose infirmity forces you take an oath. But, no one, unless he has actually experienced it, knows how difficult it is to overcome the habit of swearing and to refrain from ever doing needlessly what necessity sometimes compels one to do.

(52) In view of the fact that it was said, 'But I say to you not to swear at all,' one may inquire as to the reason for adding, 'Neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God.' And the same is true with regard to the other particulars up to the expression, 'Neither by thy head.' I suppose they were added because the Jews did not consider themselves bound by an oath if they had sworn by those things. For, because they had heard, 'Thou shalt fulfill thy oath to the Lord,' they did not believe themselves obliged to fulfill an oath to the Lord if they had sworn by heaven or the earth, by Jerusalem or by the head. This had come to pass, not through any fault of the Lawgiver, but through their misunderstanding. Therefore-beginning from the throne of God, and continuing even to the white hair or the black-the Lord teaches that none of the things which God created is of such little value that anyone may decide to swear falsely by it, for all created things from the highest to the lowest-are governed by Divine Providence. 'Neither by heaven,' says He, 'for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet.' This means that, when you swear by heaven or by the earth, you are not to think yourself not bound to fulfill your oath to the Lord, for you are shown to be swearing by Him whose throne is in heaven, and whose footstool is the earth. 'Nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.' This is a more apt expression than 'My city,' although He is certainly to be understood as having meant that, also. Therefore, because He is its Lord, whoever swears by Jerusalem is bound to fulfill his oath to the Lord. 'Neither do thou swear by thy head’ Now, what could anyone believe to be more truly his own than his head? But how is it ours, since we have no power to make one hair white or black? Therefore, if anyone wishes to swear even by his own head, he is bound to fulfill his oath to God, who eminently contains all things and is present everywhere. And in this observation, the other forms of oath also are understood-forms which certainly cannot all be enumerated-such as that saying which we have quoted from the Apostle, 'I die daily, by your glory.' And to show that he was bound to fulfill this oath to the Lord, he added: 'Which I have in Christ Jesus.'

(53) But from the fact that heaven has been called the throne of God and the earth the footstool of His feet, we are not to think that God has bodily members placed in heaven and on earth, the way we are at rest when seated. (I make this observation for the sake of those who are as yet carnal.) That seat signifies judgment, and, because in this whole body of the universe the heavens have the greatest splendor and the earth has the least, God is said to have His seat in heaven and to tread the earth with His feet. It is as though the divine power were more closely present to the transcendent beauty, but had arrayed the lesser beauty at the greatest distance and the lowest level. In the spiritual sense, however, heaven signifies holy lives, and earth signifies sinful lives. And the spiritual man is fittingly called the seat of God, for 'the spiritual man judges all things, but is himself judged by no man.’ And the sinner is rightly regarded as the footstool of His feet, for to him have been spoken the words, 'Earth thou art, and to the earth shalt thou return.' Since he was unwilling to be within the Law, he is justly set among the lowest, and placed under the Law, for justice requites according to merit.

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De Mendacio, 28

 

Written c. 395 CE.

Source: Saint Augustine. 1952. Treatises on Various Subjects, p. 90-91. Translated by Mary S. Muldowney. The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, Volume 16. Baltimore, US: Catholic University of America Press.

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(28) Furthermore, it is written: 'But I say to you not to swear at all.' The Apostle, however, swore in his Epistles and thus indicated how the command, 'I say to you not to swear at all,' is to be understood; that is, as a precaution, lest by swearing one should acquire facility in so doing, then from this facility he should acquire a habit, and, finally, as a result of the habit, he should fall into perjury. We find that the Apostle swore only when writing, where more prudent consideration does not countenance unrestrained language. Even such an oath is the result of the evil one, as it is written: 'Whatever is more is from the evil one.' The evil, however, is not St. Paul's, but the evil of the weakness of those to whom he was endeavoring to present the faith. I do not know any Scriptural text which shows that he swore when he was merely speaking and not writing. Nevertheless, the Lord says 'not to swear at all.' He has not granted that this privilege be given to persons who are engaged in writing. Because it is wrong to say that St. Paul was guilty of violating the Lord's command, especially since his Epistles were written and circulated for the spiritual life and salvation of the people, then it must be understood that the 'at all' found in the precept was set there for this purpose, that, as far as lies in one's power, he may not desire, love, and seek, with some degree of satisfaction, an oath as being something good.

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Commentary on Galatians, 9

Written c. 395 CE.

Source: Plumer, Eric. Augustine's Commentary on Galatians: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes, p. 133-134. OUP Oxford, 2003.

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9. (1) In what I am writing to you, before God, I am not lying! (Gal. 1: 20). Anyone who says, before God, I am not lying!, is undoubtedly swearing. And what is more sacred than this oath? (2) But an oath is not against the Lord's command if the evil from which it comes is not that of the person swearing but that of the unbelief of the person to whom he is forced to swear. For we see that the Lord prohibited swearing so far as it lies within a person's power-though many disregard the prohibition, keeping an oath on their lips as if it were some great delicacy. (3) There can be no doubt that the Apostle knew the Lord's command, Yet he still swore. Those who do not regard these as oaths are not to be taken seriously. (4) For what will they make of this: By your glory, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord: I die every day! (1 Cor. 15: 31)--which the Greek copies very clearly prove to be an oath. (5)Therefore the Apostle does not swear so far as it lies within his power, for he does not resort to swearing because it gives him pleasure or enjoyment. (6) It is more than 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No', and therefore comes from evil, but the evil lies in the weakness or unbelief of those who are not otherwise moved to faith.

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Contra Faustum, Book 19:22-23

Written c. 398 CE.

Source: NPNF1-04: 247-248

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22. As regards not swearing, in which also you say that Christ completed the law given to these righteous men of antiquity, I cannot be certain that they did not swear, for we find that Paul the apostle swore. With you, swearing is still a common practice, for you swear by the light, which you love as flies do; for the light of the mind which lights every man that comes into the world, as distinct from mere natural light, you know nothing of. You swear, too, by your master Manichæus, whose name in his own tongue was Manes. As the name Manes seemed to be connected with the Greek word for madness, you have changed it by adding a suffix, which only makes matters worse, by giving the new meaning of pouring forth madness. One of your own sect told me that the name Manichæus was intended to be derived from the Greek words for pouring forth manna; for χέειν means to pour. But, as it is, you only express the idea of madness with greater emphasis. For by adding the two syllables, while you have forgotten to insert another letter in the beginning of the word, you make it not Mannichæus, but Manichæus; which must mean that he pours forth madness in his long unprofitable discourses. Again, you often swear by the Paraclete,— not the Paraclete promised and sent by Christ to His disciples, but this same madness-pourer himself. Since, then, you are constantly swearing, I should like to know in what sense you make Christ to have fulfilled this part of the law, which is one you mention as belonging to the earliest times. And what do you make of the oaths of the apostle? For as to your authority, it cannot weigh much with yourselves, not to speak of me or any other person. It is therefore evident that Christ's words, "I have come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it," have not the meaning which you give them. Christ makes no reference in these words to His comments on the ancient sayings which He quotes, and of which His discourse was an explanation, but not a fulfillment.

23. Thus, as regards murder, which was understood to mean merely the destruction of the body, by which a man is deprived of life, the Lord explained that every unjust disposition to injure our brother is a kind of murder. So John also says, "He that hates his brother is a murderer." And as it was thought that adultery meant only the act of unlawful intercourse with a woman, the Master showed that the lust He describes is also adultery. Again, because perjury is a heinous sin, while there is no sin either in not swearing at all or in swearing truly, the Lord wished to secure us from departing from the truth by not swearing at all, rather than that we should be in danger of perjury by being in the habit of swearing truly. For one who never swears is less in danger of swearing falsely than one who is in the habit of swearing truly. So, in the discourses of the apostle which are recorded, he never used an oath, lest he should ever fall unawares into perjury from being in the habit of swearing. In his writings, on the other hand, where he had more leisure and opportunity for caution, we find him using oaths in several places, to teach us that there is no sin in swearing truly, but that, on account of the infirmity of human nature, we are best preserved from perjury by not swearing at all. These considerations will also make it evident that the things which Faustus supposes to be peculiar to Moses were not destroyed by Christ, as he says they were.

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Epistle 47.2 - To Publicola

Written c. 398 CE.


Source:
Augustine. 1951. Letters, Volume 1 (1-82), p. 225-227. Translated by Sister Wilfrid Parsons. The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, Volume 12. Baltimore, US: Catholic University of America Press.

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You are uncertain whether one should rely on the trustworthiness of a man whose surety is an oath sworn by demons. I want you to consider in the first place whether a man does not seem to you to have sinned twice, if he swears by false gods to keep his word and does not keep it. But, if he kept his word, pledged by such an oath, he would be deemed to have committed only one sin, that of swearing by such gods; surely no one rightly blames a man for keeping his word. Now, then, because he swore by such gods, as he should not have done, and acted contrary to his pledged word, as he should not have done, he certainly sinned twice. Therefore, he who makes use of his word, which, it is clear, has been sworn by false gods, and makes use of it, not for a bad purpose, but for a good and legitimate one, does not share in the sin by which he swore by demons, but in the good act by which he kept his faith. Here I am not speaking of that faith being kept by which those who are baptized in Christ are called faithful, for that faith is very different and far removed from the faith of human contracts and agreements. But, without any doubt, it is less a sin to swear truly by false gods than to swear falsely by the true God. For, the more sacred is that by which one swears, the more culpable is it to swear falsely. Therefore, it is another question whether one sins who obliges some one else to swear to him by false gods, when the one who swears worships the false gods. In fact, there is evidence bearing on that question, such as you recalled yourself, Laban and Abimelech, if, however, Abimelech swore by his gods as Laban did by the God of Nachor. But that, as I said, is another question, about which I might properly be concerned, except that the examples occur of Isaac and Jacob, and some others that might be found; although what does now concern me is what is written in the New Testament that we should not swear at all. And it seems to me that this was said, not because it is a sin to swear truly, but because it is a heinous sin to swear falsely, and so He warned us not to swear at all because He wished to keep us far from that sin. I know that this seems to you a different point, about which there is now no discussion, and that we should rather get on to what you wanted solved. Therefore, just as you do not swear, so you do not force another to swear, if you agree to this; but, although it is said that we should not swear, I do not remember reading anywhere in the Holy Scriptures that we should not receive an oath from another. Truly, it is another question whether we should profit by a peace which has been sanctioned by a mutual oath among others. If we do not wish to do so, I do not know whether we can find anywhere on earth to live, for peace is secured by the oath of barbarians, not only for a single boundary but for whole provinces. It will follow from this that not only the crops which are protected by those who swear by false gods, but everything else which is safeguarded by the same agreement, confirmed by that kind of oath, would be defiled. If it is utterly absurd to say that, then do not be disturbed by that scruple.

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Excerpt from: Epistle 157 - To Hilarius

Written c. 414 in response to Hilarius asking Augustine about Pelagian teaching [Ep. 156].

Source : Augustine, Letters Volume III, 131-164, p. 353-354. trans. Sr. Wilfred Parsons, 1953,. Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C.

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Avoid swearing as far as possible. It is certainly better not even to swear to the truth than to form the habit of swearing, thereby often falling into perjury or being on the verge of falling into it. As for your objectors, such of them as I have heard, they do not know precisely what swearing is. They think they are not swearing when they use the words: 'God knows' and 'God is my witness' and 'I call God to witness upon my soul,' because they do not say 'By God' and because such expressions are found in the Apostle Paul. There is an expression to be found which refutes them and which they admit is an oath, where the Apostle says: 'I die daily, I protest by your glory, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord.' In the Greek versions this is definitely understood as an oath and no one is to understand in Latin that these words, 'by your glory,' are said with the same meaning as 'by my coming to you again,' and many such expressions where we say 'by something' without meaning to swear. The fact that the Apostle, a man thoroughly steeped in the truth, used oaths in his letters is no reason why we should treat oaths lightly. It is much safer for us, as I said, never to swear at all, as far as it lies in us, and to have in our mouths the words, 'yea, yea, no, no,' as the Lord advises; not that it is a sin to swear truthfully, but that it is a grievous sin to swear falsely, and the habit of swearing makes one fall quickly.

This is a statement for you of my views. Better men may give you a better explanation; not those whose opinion I now know is to be condemned [Pelagians], but others who can argue truthfully; for I am more eager to learn than to teach, and you will do me a great kindness if you will let me know what refutations are being made there by the holy brethren against this idle talk. May you live uprightly and happily in the Lord, my dearly loved son.

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Excerpt from: Exposition on Psalm 88 (89 LXX) (First Sermon)

Written c. 399-411 CE.

Source: NPNF1-08:430

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For the oath of God is the assurance of a promise. Man is justly forbidden to swear: lest by the habit of swearing, since a man may be deceived, he fall into perjury. God alone swears securely, because He alone is infallible.

Excerpt from: Exposition on Psalm 109,17

Source: Augustine. Expositions of the Psalms 99-120, p. 280. Vol. 19. Trans. Maria Boulding. New City Press, 2003.


The Lord has sworn: what does this mean? Is it possible that God swears, when he has forbidden human beings to swear?" Or should we not think, rather, that he forbids humans to swear because of the danger of their slipping into perjury but that God can swear because there is no possibility of his swearing falsely? If a man or woman gets into the habit of swearing there is the risk of a slip into perjury, and so the warning against oaths is necessary: the more oaths are avoided, the less likely are people to be forsworn. A human being who swears may swear either to what is false or to what is true, but one who avoids oaths altogether cannot swear to falsehood. Why, then, should the Lord not swear? His oath is the confirmation of his promise. He has every right to swear. Think now: when you take an oath, what are you doing? You are calling God to witness; that is what an oath is: an appeal to God to witness to what you say. This is why it is dangerous, for you may invoke God as witness to some falsehood. But if you when taking an oath call God to witness, why should God not invoke himself as witness by giving his oath? God's manner of swearing is to say, As I live. That is how he uttered his oath concerning the posterity of Abraham: As I live, says the Lord: because you have hearkened to my voice, and for my sake have not withheld your beloved son, ! will bless you exceedingly, and multiply your seed more and more, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore: and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed (Gn 22:16-18). Now Christ is the seed of Abraham. He who took flesh from Abraham's stock will be a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek. It is about Christ's priest-hood according to the order of Melchizedek that the Lord has sworn, and will not revoke it.

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Sermon 180

Source: Saint Augustine. 1992. Sermons 148-183 on the New Testament, p.314-322. Translated by Edmund Hill. New City Press

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Sermon 180

On the Words of the Apostle James 5:12: Above All Do Not Swear

Do not swear

1. The first reading which was chanted to us today from the apostle James, has been presented to us for discussion, and has to some extent been imposed on us. It has certainly made you alert, admonishing you above all not to swear. This is a difficult question. Is there anyone not caught by this sin, if swearing is a sin? I mean, that forswearing, or perjury, is a sin, and a great sin, nobody can doubt. But the apostle whose reading we are dealing with did not say, "Above all, my brothers, do not forswear," but do not swear. A similar admonition was also given earlier in the gospel by the Lord Jesus Christ himself: You have heard, he said, that it was said to the ancients, You shall not forswear yourself But I tell you, Do not swear, neither by heaven, because it is God's throne; nor by earth, because it is his footstool; and you shall not swear either by your head, because it is not in your power to make one hair of it white or black. But let your word be: Yes, yes; No, no. If there is anything over and above, it comes from what is evil (Mt 5:33-37). The reading from the apostle we have mentioned fits this admonition of the Lord's perfectly, so that it seems that God commanded nothing else but this, because the one who said this is none other than the one who said through the apostle, Above all, my brothers, says he, do not swear, neither by heaven nor by earth, nor any other kind of oath at all. But let your word be: Yes, yes; No, no (Jas 5:12). The only thing he added was Above all; thereby he made us very alert, and only increased the difficulty of the question.

The only thing that makes a guilty tongue is a guilty mind

2. We find, you see, that the saints have sworn, that the first to have sworn is the Lord himself, in whom there is no sin whatsoever. The Lord has sworn, and will not repent: You are a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4). He promised the Son an eternal priesthood with an oath. You also have By myself I swear it, says the Lord (Gn 22:16). As a man swears by God, so God by himself. So isn't it a sin to swear? It's hard to say so; and since we have said that God has sworn, how blasphemous it seems to say so! God swears, and he has no sin; so it is not a sin to swear, but it's a sin, rather, to forswear oneself.

Someone may say, perhaps, that we shouldn't bring in the Lord God as an example of swearing oaths. He's God, after all, and perhaps he alone is competent to swear since he cannot perjure himself. People, you see, swear falsely, either when they are being deceitful or being deceived. I mean, you either think something's true when it's false, and swear to it rashly; or you know or think it's false, and yet swear it's true, and still swear a criminal oath, regardless. These two sorts of perjury, though, which I have mentioned are very different. Suppose this person swears, who thinks what he's swearing to is true, and yet it is in fact false. He isn't deliberately perjuring himself; he's just mistaken, he regards as true what is in fact false; lie doesn't knowingly interpose an oath for something false. Now give me another person who knows it's false and says it's true, and swears as though what he knows to be false were true. Can you see what a detestable monster this is, properly to be eliminated from human society? I mean who would like this sort of thing to be done? All people detest such things.

Take another person; he thinks it's false, and swears to it as if it were true—and it so happens it is true. For example, to help you understand: "Did it rain in that place?" you ask someone, and he thinks it didn't, but it suits his purpose to say "Yes, it did." But he thinks it didn't. You say to him, "Did it really rain?" "Yes, really," and he swears it did; and in fact it did rain there, but he doesn't know it, and thinks it didn't; he's a perjurer. What makes the difference is how the word comes forth from the mind. The only thing that makes a guilty tongue is a guilty mind.

But is there anybody who is never mistaken, even though nobody has ever wanted to be mistaken? Is there anybody who is not sometimes caught out in a mistake? And yet swearing doesn't disappear from people's mouths, it's a commonplace; often there are more oaths than words. If you were to count up how often you swear throughout the day, how often you inflict wounds on yourself, how often you strike and run yourself through with the sword of your tongue, could you find anywhere in yourself that remains unhurt? So because perjury is a grave sin, scripture has given you a simple formula: Don't swear.

Swearing is a narrow ledge, perjury a precipice

3. What am I, a man, to say to you? Swear the truth? There you are, you swear the truth, you're not sinning; if you swear the truth, you aren't committing a sin. But you're a human being set in the midst of trials and temptations, wrapped round in flesh, trampling earth under earth, while the body that decays is weighing down the soul, and the earthly habitation depresses the mind thinking many things; among these many uncertain, flickering thoughts of yours, human conjectures, human mistakes, when does something untrue not creep into your mind, placed as you are in the region of falsehood?

So do you wish to keep far away from perjury, from forswearing yourself? Give up swearing. You see, if you swear, you can sometimes swear the truth; but if you don’t swear at all, you can never swear a lie. So let God swear, since he can swear safely, and nothing deceives him, nothing escapes him, who is totally incapable of deceiving, because he cannot either be deceived. When he swears, after all, he calls himself as a witness. Just as you, when you swear, call God as a witness, so he, when he swears, calls himself as a witness. You, when you call him as a witness, perhaps to a lie of yours, are taking in vain the name of the Lord your God. So in order not to swear to a lie, don't swear at all. Swearing is a narrow ledge, perjury a precipice. If you swear, you're near the edge; if you don't swear, you're far away from it. You sin, and gravely, if you swear to what is false; you don't sin, if you swear the truth; but then you don't sin either, if you don't swear at all. But if you don't swear and don't sin, you are a long way away from sin; while if you do swear the truth, you don't sin, but you are near to sin. Suppose you are walking in some place, where there is plenty of space on your right, and you don't face any narrow paths; on your left the ground falls away in a cliff. Where do you prefer to walk? Along the borderline, on the edge of the cliff, or far away from it? Far away from it, I rather think. So too, if you swear, you're walking on the borderline; and you're walking on shaky, because human, feet. If you stumble, down you go. If you slip, down you go. And what's waiting for you at the bottom? The penalty of perjury. So you were wishing to swear the truth? Listen to God's advice: don't swear at all.

Swear to the truth or don't swear at all

4. If swearing were a sin, it wouldn't say in the old law, You shall not forswear yourself; but you shall render to the Lord your oath. We would not, I mean, be commanded to do what is a sin. But your God says to you, "If you swear, I won't condemn you; if you swear the truth, I won't condemn you. But do you imagine I will condemn you if you don't swear at all? There are two things," he says, "which I never condemn: swearing a true oath and not swearing any oath. But I do condemn swearing a false oath." A false oath is deadly, a true oath is dangerous, swearing no oath at all is safe. Yes, I know it's a difficult question, and I confess to your graces that I've always avoided it. But now, when this same reading has been recited on a Sunday, with the obligation of preaching a sermon, I really believed I was divinely commanded to deal with it. This is what God wanted me to talk about; this is what he wanted you to hear. I beg you not to shrug the matter aside, I beg you to give me the steady attention of your minds, to alter the fickle habits of your tongues. It's certainly not pointless, not without meaning, that while I have always wanted, as I said, to avoid this question, the necessity of dealing with it has been thrust on me, in order also to be thrust upon your graces.

The apostle Paul also swore

5. To show you that swearing to the truth is not a sin, we find that the apostle Paul also swore: I die daily by your glory, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Cor 15:31). "By your glory" is an oath. He didn't say "I die by your glory," as though meaning your glory is making me die; as you might say, "He died by poison, he died by the sword, he died by a wild beast, he died by an enemy's hand"; that is, with an enemy causing his death, a sword causing it, poison causing it, and so on. That's not how he meant by your glory. The Greek text removes all ambiguity. We look in the Greek letter, and we find there an unambiguous oath: Ne ten humeteran kauchesin. When a Greek says Ne ton Theon, he's swearing. You hear Greeks every day, and those of you who know Greek—when he says Ne ton Theon, you know Ne ton Theon is an oath: "by God." So nobody should doubt that the apostle was swearing when he said By your glory, brothers—and in case we should think he was swearing by human glory—which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Somewhere else there's an absolutely certain and explicit oath: I call God to witness upon my life. The apostle says, I call God to witness upon any life, that it is to spare you that I have not yet come to Corinth (2 Cor 1:23). And in another place to the Galatians, But as to what I am writing to you, before God I am not lying (Gal 1:20).

Using an oath

6. Pay attention, please, and take note; and if what I'm saying doesn't strike you as all that plausible, because of the trickiness of the question, it's still useful if it reaches to your innermost feelings. Look here, the apostle swore. Don't let those people deceive you, who wish to make I don't know what distinctions between oaths, or rather wish not to understand correctly, and say that it isn't an oath when you say, "God knows"; "God is my witness"; "I call to God upon my life that I'm telling the truth." "He called upon God," he says; "he made God a witness; did he swear?" People who say this only want to call upon God as a witness when they lie. Is it really the case, though, whoever you are of a crooked and twisted mind, that if you say "By God," you're swearing, while if you say "As God is my witness," you aren't swearing? Well, what does "By God mean," but "God is my witness"? Or what's "As God is my witness" if not "By God"?

Great harm comes to you, when you deceive your neighbor and present God to him as a witness

7. Now what is swearing, really, but handing over a right to God, when you swear by God; handing over a right to your health, when you swear by your health; handing over a right to your children, when you swear by your children? But what right or duty do we owe to our health, our children, our God, but that of love, of truth, and not of falsehood? Now it is supremely a real oath when one swears by God; because even when you say "By my health," you are binding your health to God; when you say “By my children,” you are pledging your children to God, so that whatever comes out of your mouth may alight upon their heads; If truth, the truth; if falsehood, falsehood. So when any of you in swearing an oath name your children, or your head, or your health, you are binding whatever you name to God. How much more so when you forswear yourself by God himself! You're afraid to swear falsely by your son, and you're not afraid to swear falsely by your God? Perhaps this is what you are saying to yourself: "I'm afraid to swear falsely by my son, in case he dies. But what harm can happen to God, who cannot die, even if someone swears a false oath by him?" You're right to say that no harm can come to God when you swear falsely by God. But great harm comes to you, when you deceive your neighbor and present God to him as a witness. If you did something with your son as a witness, and said to a friend or a neighbor or anybody at all, "I didn't do it," and touched the head of your son, who witnessed your doing it, and said, "By this boy's salvation, I swear I didn't do it"; perhaps your son would cry out, trembling under his father's hand, dreading though, not his father's, but God's hand, "Don't, Father; don't hold my salvation cheap; you've invoked the name of God upon me, I saw you, you did it, don't perjure yourself; yes, I have you as my begetter, but I am more afraid of the one who is both your and my creator"

The life of the body is the soul: the life of the soul is God

8. But because God doesn't say to you, when you swear by him, "I myself saw you; don't swear; you did it"; but you're afraid this man may kill you, so you kill yourself first;" so because he doesn't say "I myself saw you," do you imagine he didn't see you? And what about his words, I kept quiet, I kept quiet; shall I keep quiet always? (Is 42:14). And in any case, he frequently does say "I saw you," but in a different kind of way, when he punishes perjury. But he doesn't punish all cases of It; that's why people are encouraged to follow the bad example.

"I know; he swore me a false oath, and he's still alive."

"He swore you a false oath and is still alive?"

"He swore falsely and is still alive; that man swore falsely."

"You're mistaken. If you had the eyes to see this person's death; if you too were not mistaken about what dying and not dying really is, you would see this person's death."

And now pay attention to scripture; and there you will find the person you thought was alive lying dead. Because he's walking on his feet, touching things with his hands, because he sees with his eyes and hears with his ears, and makes use of the other various functions of different parts of his body, you think he's alive. He is alive, but only his body; his soul, though, is dead, what's best in him is dead. The dwelling is alive, the occupant dead. "How," you will ask, "can his soul be dead, since his body's alive; since the body wouldn't be alive unless it were being animated by the soul?" So how can the soul, by which the body lives, be dead? Listen, then, and learn; the human body is God's creature, and the human soul is God's creature. God gives life to the flesh through the soul, and again he gives life to the soul through himself, not through the soul itself. So the life of the body is the soul; the life of the soul is God. The body dies when the soul departs; so the soul dies if God departs. The soul departs, when the body is struck with a sword; and do you imagine that God doesn't depart, when the soul stabs itself with perjury?

Do you want to see that the person you are talking about really is dead? Read scripture: The mouth that lies kills the soul (Wis 1:11). You, though, would consider God to be present as avenger, if the man who deceived you with a false oath were to expire on the spot. If he expired before your eyes, it's his flesh that expired. What does that mean, his flesh expired? It cast out the spirit by which it was being animated. That is, it expired when the spirit was excluded, by which the flesh lived. He forswore himself; he excluded the spirit by which his soul lived. He expired, but you don't know it; he expired, but you don't see it. You see the flesh lying there without the soul; you can't see the soul reduced to wretchedness without God.

So believe, apply the eyes of faith. No perjurer goes unpunished. Not a single one; they all carry their punishment with them. If they suffered tortures of the flesh on their beds, they would have been punished, he suffers the torments of his conscience in the inner chamber of his heart, and he is said to go unpunished? And yet what is it you're saying? "He's alive, he's enjoying himself, he's having a high old time, the man who swore a lie to me; what's the point of referring me to invisible factors?" Well, because God himself, by whom he swore, is also invisible. He swore by one who is invisible; he is smitten with a punishment that is invisible. "But he's alive," you say, "and kicking; just somehow or other bubbling and boiling over with loose living." If that's the case, that he's bubbling over with loose living, boiling over with loose living, then these are the maggots in a dead soul. In any case, every sensible person who observes perjurers being wildly extravagant, since he has a healthy sense of smell in his heart, turns away, doesn't want to see, doesn't want to hear. What is it makes this healthy attitude turn away, but the stench of a dead soul?

Above all be on the watch

9. Listen then, my brothers and sisters, for a little while longer; let me conclude the sermon by fixing in your minds a salutary concern: Above all, do not swear (Jas 5:12). Why above all? If perjury is a grave misdeed, but no blame attaches to swearing the truth, why above all, do not swear? I mean, he ought to have said, "Above all, do not perjure yourselves." Above all, he said, do not swear. Swearing, after all then, is worse than stealing? Swearing is worse than committing adultery? I'm not talking about swearing falsely; I'm talking about swearing. Swearing is worse than killing a person? Perish the thought! Killing people, committing adultery, stealing, they're sins; swearing is not a sin; but swearing to something false is a sin.

So why above all? This expression he uses, above all, has put us on our guard against our tongues. He says above all, to give this the first claim on your attention, to put you on the watch against the habit of swearing creeping up on you. It's as though he has placed you in a look-out post over against yourself; above all has lifted you up above other things, to where you can observe yourself from. You see, he considers you swearing, "By God, by Christ, I'm going to kill him"; and this how often every day, how often every hour! You can't open your mouth except to swear like that. You would rather he didn't say to you above all, in order to make you very determined against the habit, in order to get you inspecting all your words, keeping the most diligent watch over all the movements of your tongue, being on your guard against this bad habit of yours, in order to restrict it? Listen: Above all. You were asleep, I'm poking you in the ribs: Above all; I'm applying thorns. What does Above all mean? Above all be on the watch; above all be alert.

Augustine's habit of swearing

10. I too have sworn heedlessly and all the time, I have had this most repulsive and death-dealing habit. I'm telling your graces; from the moment I began to serve God, and saw what evil there is in forswearing oneself, I grew very afraid indeed, and out of fear I applied the brakes to this old, old habit. When the brakes are put on, it's restricted; when it's restricted it grows weaker; as it grows weaker it dies away, and the bad habit is succeeded by a good one. For all that, I'm not telling you that I don't swear. I mean, if I do say that, I'm lying. As far as I am concerned, I do swear; but as I see it, only when obliged to by great necessity. When I see that I won't be believed unless I do so, and that it's not in the interests of the person who doesn't believe me not to believe me, then after carefully weighing this reason, balancing this consideration, with great trepidation I say, "Before God," or "As God is my witness," or "Christ knows that that is what I have in mind."

And I can see that this is more, that is to say it is over and above Yes, yes; No, no; but anything over and above comes from what is evil; even if not from what is evil in the person swearing, from what is evil in the person who won't believe. In any case, he doesn't say "If he does over and above, he is evil"; and, "Let there be in your mouth Yes, yes; No, no; if anyone does over and above, he is evil; but Let there be in your mouth Yes, yes; No, no; but what is over and above comes from what is evil. But ask whose, or in whom."

But for all that, this dreadful human habit works quite differently. Even when you are believed, you swear; even when nobody is requiring it of you, you swear; and when people are rather shocked, you swear; you never stop swearing; you hardly manage to keep healthy by not forswearing yourself. Unless perhaps you imagine, brothers and sisters, that even if the apostle Paul had known the Galatians would believe him, he would still have added an oath, and said, As for what I am writing to you, behold, before God, that I am not lying (Gal 1:20). He could see people there who believed him, and he could also see others who didn't.

So don't say, "I don't swear," if it happens to be demanded of you; what you're doing does indeed come from what is evil, but it's the evil of the person who's demanding it. Because as far as you are concerned, you have no other means of clearing yourself, you can't find any other way of concluding the business that is pressing. But an oath when it is demanded of you is one thing, an oath freely offered another; and in the case of one freely offered, one thing when it's offered to someone who doesn't believe you otherwise, another when it's waved in the face of someone who does believe you in any case.

Prune swearing away from your tongues

11. So keep your tongue in check, and this habit, as far as you can; not like some people, when they're told, "Are you telling the truth? I don't believe you. You didn't do it? I don't believe you; let God judge; swear to me."" And as for the one who requires the oath, it makes all the difference if he doesn't know that the other is going to swear falsely, or if he does. If he doesn't know, and the reason he says "Swear tome" is that he wants to be given assurance; then I cannot quite say it isn't a sin, but yet it's a human temptation." If, however, he knows he's done it, is aware he did it, saw him do it, and still compels him to swear, he's a murderer. The other man, you see, destroys himself by his perjury; but this one both directs the hand of the slayer and presses it home.

When, though, some scoundrel of a thief hears, "Swear, if you didn't take it, swear if you didn't do it," from a person who doesn't know whether he did do it, and he then answers, "A Christian isn't allowed to swear; when an oath is demanded of him, he isn't allowed to swear; I'm a Christian, I'm not allowed to"; catch such a fellow out; turn away from him, change the subject from the business you were talking about; bring other matters into the conversation, and you'll soon find him swearing a thousand times, the man who refused to swear once. So then, get yourselves out of this daily, constant, pointless habit of swearing when nobody's obliging you to, nobody's doubting your word; prune it away from your tongues; circumcise it from your mouths.

A stronger habit calls for stronger determination

12. "But it's a custom," they usually say. They usually say, but I don't say. That's the point of Above all. Why Above all? Be careful about this before other things, pay more attention to this than to other matters. A stronger habit calls for stronger determination; it isn't a trifling habit. If you were doing something with your hand, you could easily order your hand not to do it; if you had to go somewhere on foot, and sloth was delaying you, you could bestir yourself to get up and go. The tongue moves very easily, it's in a moist, well-lubricated place, it slithers and slides around very easily. The quicker and nimbler it is to move, the more resolute must be your opposition to it.

You will tame it, if you keep awake; you will keep awake if you are afraid, if you reflect that you are a Christian. Because swearing is so infected with evil, that those who worship stones are afraid of swearing falsely by their stones; and are you not afraid of the God who is present, the living God, God who knows, God who abides, God who takes vengeance on those who despise him? That man closes the temple on a stone, and goes home; he has shut the temple on his god, and yet when he is told, "Swear by Jupiter," he is afraid of the eyes of his god as if he were present.

God punishes you deceiving

13. And look, I'm telling your graces, that even the person who swears falsely by a stone is a perjurer. Why do I say this? Because many people are mistaken on this point, and think that because what they are swearing by is nothing, they aren't implicated in the crime of perjury. Undoubtedly you're a perjurer, because you are swearing falsely by what you consider holy. "But I don't consider it holy." The person you are swearing to thinks it's holy. After all, when you swear, you aren't swearing to yourself, or to the stone idol; you're swearing to your neighbor. You're swearing to a human being in front of a stone; but isn't it also in front of God? The stone can't hear you speaking; but God does punish you deceiving.

Put a stop to swearing

14. So above all, my brothers and sisters, I beseech you, don't let it be that God has compelled me to say all this for nothing. It's in his presence, you see, that I say what I said earlier, that I have often avoided this question. I was afraid that by warning and instructing I would make the people who weren't going to listen all the more guilty. But today I was more afraid of refusing to speak what I was ordered to speak. But it's as if all my toil and sweat would bear a little fruit, if all those who have been applauding me would cry out against themselves, not to swear falsely against themselves; if so many people who have been listening to me so intently would be as intent against their habit, and would admonish themselves today, when they get home, when they fall into the habit again by a slip of the tongue; if neighbor would admonish neighbor: "This is what we heard today, this is the obligation we were laid under."

Don't let it be done today, certainly not with the sermon so recent. I can speak from experience; don't let it be done today, tomorrow it becomes slacker. If it isn't done tomorrow either, the one who's watching out has less trouble; the new habit of the previous day, you see, helps out. On the third day the disease I am struggling over dies away; and I will rejoice over your fruit, because you will bear an abundant crop of great good if you rid yourselves of so great an evil.

Turning to the Lord, etc.

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Augustine, Sermon 307

Delivered in Hippo Regius c. 405-415 CE.

Source: Saint Augustine. 1994. Sermons 306-340A on the Saints, p. 47-49. Translated by Edmund Hill. New City Press.

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Sermon 307

First Sermon On the Beheading of the Blessed John the Baptist

The murder of John the Baptist occasioned by a rash oath

1. When the holy gospel was read, our eyes were presented with a cruel spectacle, the head of John on a dish; and an errand of savage cruelty, because of hatred of the truth. A girl dances, and her mother vents her rage; and amid the lascivious pleasures of the banqueters a rash oath is sworn, and what is promised by it is impiously fulfilled. What John himself had foretold was done to him; about the Lord Jesus Christ, you see he had said, He must grow, while I must be diminished (John 3:30). He was diminished by losing his head. While Christ grew by being stretched on the cross. The truth bred hatred. The admonition of the holy man of God could not be tolerated with equanimity; though he, of course, was seeking the salvation of those whom he was admonishing in this way. They for their part gave him an evil retort for his good words. What, after all, was he to say, but what he was full of? And what retort were they to make, but what they were full of? He sowed wheat, but found thistles. He was telling the king, It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife (Mk 6:18). The king, you see, was being defeated by lust; he was keeping with him his brother’s wife, which was forbidden. But all the same, he indulged his lust without being enraged against John; he held in honor the man from whom he heard the truth.

That detestable woman, however, conceived a hatred to sooner or later, given the occasion, she would give birth. When she brought to bed, she bore a daughter, a dancing daughter. And that king, who held John to be a holy man, who feared him because of the Lord, even if he didn’t obey him, when John’s head in a dish was demanded of him, was deeply grieved. But because of his oath and because of his guests, he sent a halberdier, and carried out what he had sworn.

The reading calls for a sermon on swearing

2. This passage, dearly beloved, rather requires me, for the sake of your manner of life and morals, to talk to you a little about the matter of swearing oaths. Swearing a false oath is no light sin; on the contrary, it is such a great sin to swear falsely, that because of the guilt involved in a false oath, the Lord forbade the swearing of any oath at all. He said, you see, It was said: You shall not swear falsely, but you shall pay your oath to the Lord. But I am telling you not to swear at all, neither by heaven, because it is God's throne; nor by the earth, because it is his footstool; nor any other oath whatever. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. But let there be on your lips yes for yes; no for no. If there is anything more, it is from what is evil (Mt 5:33-37).

God, however, has sworn oaths

3. We find, though, in the holy scriptures that God swore an oath when Abraham obeyed him to the extent of sacrificing his beloved son. The angel spoke to him from heaven, saying, By myself I swear it, says the Lord; because you have obeyed my voice, and for my sake have not spared your beloved son, blessing I will bless you, and I will fill up your seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand of the sea; and in your seed shall all the nations be blessed (Gn 22:15-18). The fact that you can see Christians filling the whole wide world shows the truthfulness of God's oath.

And again in the psalms there was this prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ: The Lord has sworn an oath, and will not repent: You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4). Those of you who know the scriptures know what was offered by Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, when he blessed Abraham. I mustn't say what it was, because of the catechumens. The faithful, though, can recognize how what we now see fulfilled was prophesied long before. And how is this so? Because the Lord swore it. And the Lord has sworn an oath, and will not repent; not like Herod, who did repent of having sworn an oath.

But we are very sensibly forbidden to do so

4. Seeing then that the Lord swore oaths, why did the Lord Christ forbid his followers to swear oaths? Let me tell you why. It isn't a sin to swear a true oath. But because it is a great sin to swear a false oath, the person who doesn't swear at all is a long way from the sin of swearing a false oath; while the one who swears even a true oath is drawing near to swearing falsely. So the Lord, in forbidding you to swear, didn’t want you to be walking on the brink, in case your foot should slip in a tight spot, and you should fall.

"But the Lord swore," he says.

The one who is incapable of lying can swear without a qualm. Don’t let it trouble you that the Lord swore oaths; because it may well be that the only one who ought to swear is God.

When you, after all swear an oath, what are you really doing? You are putting God forward as a witness. You make him a witness, he makes himself a witness. But you, being merely human, are often mistaken about many things, thus frequently bring the truth forward as a witness to your own falsehood. Sometimes you can perjure yourself even without intending to, when you think what you are swearing to is true. This is not indeed such a great sin as when you know it's untrue, and yet you swear to it. How much better, though, you are, and far removed altogether from this grave sin, if you listen to the Lord Christ and don't swear at all!

Augustine managed to rid himself of the habit of swearing, so you can do it too

5. I know it's hard to get out of your habit; but it was also hard for me to get out of mine. Through the fear of God I managed to rid my mouth of swearing. Here I am, living among you; which of you ever heard me swearing? But hadn't I once been in the habit of swearing every day? But then I read passages like this, and I was afraid, and I struggled against my habit, and in the very struggle I called on the Lord for help. It was the Lord who helped me to stop swearing. Nothing is easier for me now than not to swear. The reason I have mentioned this to your graces is to prevent you saying, "Who can manage it?” Oh, if only God were really feared! Oh, if only people were really terrified of perjury! Then the tongue can be bridled, truth held onto, swearing eliminated.

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Augustine, Sermon 308

Delivered in Hippo Regius c. 420 CE. Latin Text Available here.

Source: Saint Augustine. 1994. Sermons 306-340A on the Saints, p. 51-53. Translated by Edmund Hill. New City Press.

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Sermon 308

Second Sermon On the Beheading of the Blessed John the Baptist

Herod is faced with the choice between offending God by breaking his oath, and offending him by an act of savagery
1. I must say something to your graces on account of this passage which we heard today when the gospel was chanted. You can see that this wretched Herod loved John, the holy man of God; but since he swore a rash oath, drunk with jollity and enjoyment of a girl's dancing, he promised he would give the girl, whose dancing had so pleased him, whatever she asked for. When though, she asked for something cruel and wicked, he was indeed grieved; he could see, after all, what a terrible crime was afoot. But he was caught between his oath and the girl's request, and while he could see it was a bloody deed; he was also afraid of the guilt of a broken oath. So in order not to offend God by breaking his oath, he offended God by an act of savagery.

Someone says to me, "So what should Herod have done?" If I say he ought not to have sworn, anyone can see that he oughtn't to have done so. But I'm not being consulted about whether a person should swear or not, but about what a person should do when he has sworn. That's a big problem. It was a rash oath he swore, we all know that. Still there it is, he slipped up, he swore it. Here was the girl, asking for the head of Saint John; what should Herod have done? Let's give him some advice. If we say, "Spare John, don't commit such a crime." we are trying to persuade him to break his oath. If we say, "Don't break your oath," we are encouraging him to perpetrate a crime. A choice between two evils.

So before you get caught in this two-way snare, rid your mouths of rash oaths. Before you get into this bad habit, I'm warning you, my brothers, I'm warning you, my sons—what need is there for you to get into this bind, where we can't find any good advice to give?

The example of David, who broke a rash oath, rather than commit murder

2. Yet on combing the scriptures more carefully, I come across one example, in which I see a pious and holy man who slipped into swearing a rash oath, and preferred not to do what he had sworn to, rather than fulfill his oath by shedding a. man's blood. So let me remind your graces of it. When Saul, ungrateful man that he was, was hunting David down, David was going around wherever he could with his companions, in order not to be found by Saul and killed. And one day he asked a rich man called Nabal, who was shearing his sheep, for some supplies for himself and his companions. This man ungenerously refused to give him anything, and what was more serious, returned an abusive answer. Saint David swore he would kill him. After all, he was armed; and without thinking he swore he would do what would have been easy enough, and what anger was persuading him would be perfectly just. And he set off to do what he had sworn to. Nabal's wife, Abigail, came to meet him, and brought all the things he needed and had requested. She begged and pleaded with him, she dissuaded him and deflected him from shedding her husband's blood. He swore a rash oath, but out of a more genuine religious sense, he did not carry out his oath.

Accordingly, dearly beloved, let me come back again to the warning I have for you. Here's Saint David; he didn't, indeed, shed a man's blood in anger; but can anybody deny that he swore an oath that was false? Of the two sins, he chose the lesser; but it was only less in comparison with the greater one. Because simply weighed in the scales by itself, swearing a false oath is a great evil. So first of all you must all work hard, and struggle against your bad, bad, bad, yes exceedingly bad habit; and rid your mouths of all oaths and swearing.

About swearing when challenged to do so

3. But if somebody challenges you to swear, because he reckons, perhaps, that he can be satisfied in this way, if you swear about the thing he thinks you have done or committed, and maybe you haven't done it; then to rid him of that evil suspicion, if you swear, you don't sin in the way he does by challenging you to. Because the Lord Jesus said, Let there be on your lips, yes for yes, and no for no. If there is anything more. it is from what is evil (Mt 5:37). Now he was talking about swearing, and wanted us to realize that the mere act of swearing is from what is evil. If you are challenged by somebody else, the fact of your swearing is from his evil, not from yours. And in fact it's practically from an evil that is common to the human race, since we are unable to see into each other's hearts. I mean, if we could see into each other's hearts, who would there be for us to swear to? When would any oath be demanded of us, if our very thoughts were visible to our neighbor's eyes?

Forcing someone to swear when you think he will swear falsely is worse than murder

4. Engrave on your hearts what I am going to say: If you challenge someone to swear, and know he is going to swear to a falsehood, you outdo a murderer; because a murderer kills the body, you the soul—or rather two souls, both that of the person you challenge to swear, and your own. You know that what you are saying is true and what he is saying is false, and yet you force him to swear to it? So there, then, he swears, so there, he perjures himself, so there, he perishes; and you, what have you got out of it? Why, you too have perished, because you have deliberately taken satisfaction in his death.

The story of Tutuslymeni

5. Let me tell your graces a story I've never told before, something that happened in this congregation, in this church. There was a man here, a simple soul, harmless, a true believer, known to many of you people of Hippo, indeed to all of you, a man called Tutuslymeni. Which of you, who are citizens, didn't know Tutuslymeni? It was from him that I heard what I am going to tell you.

Someone or other refused to give him back either what he had entrusted to him, or what he owed him; and he had relied on the man's honesty. He was so upset, he challenged him to swear to it. That man swore, this man lost his property. But while this man lost his property, that man lost his very soul. So this Tutuslymeni, a serious and reliable man, told me that that very night he was brought before a judge, and with considerable violence and terror he came into the presence of an awesome and exalted personage, attended by a court of similarly exalted persons: and that as he cowered in a corner, the order was given for him to be summoned back again, and that he was interrogated in these words:

"Why did you challenge a man to swear, when you knew he was going to swear falsely?"

He replied, "He refused to give me back my property."

"And would it not have been better," the answer came, "for you to lose the property you were demanding, than for you to destroy the soul of this man with a false oath?"

The order was given for him to be laid on the ground and beaten. He was beaten so severely that when he woke up the welts raised by the blows were evident on his back. But he was told, after being punished, "You are being spared, for your otherwise blameless life: but take care you don't ever do this again." He certainly committed a grave sin, and was punished for it; but any of you here will be committing a much graver sin, if after this sermon and this warning of mine you go and do anything of the same sort. Beware of swearing false oaths, all of you, beware of swearing rash oaths. You will safely avoid these two evils, if you rid yourselves of the habit of swearing altogether.

Augustine, Tractate 41.3 on the Gospel of John

Source: Tractates on the Gospel of John 28–54. (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 88). Vol. 88. Trans.: J.W. Rettig. CUA Press, 2010. P. 138

 

But what the Lord answered, this let us hear better and more attentively so that we ourselves may not also be found slaves. "Jesus answered them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.— He is a slave—I wish it were of a man and not of sin. Who would not quake at these words? Let the Lord our God grant to us, that is, to you and to me, that I speak knowledgeably about seeking this freedom and avoiding that slavery. "Amen, amen, I say to you," Truth says. And what is the nature of this expression of the Lord our God's: "Amen, amen, I say to you"? He very much affirms what he proclaims in this way; in a certain sense, if it is right for it to be said, it is his oath: "Amen, amen, I say to you." In fact, "Amen" is translated as "truly" and yet it has not been translated although it. could be expressed: "Truly, I say to you." Neither the Greek nor the Latin translator has dared to do this; for the word "Amen" is neither Greek nor Latin but Hebrew. So it has remained, has not been translated so that it might be honored by a veil of mystery, not that it be disavowed but that it be not cheapened by being laid bare. And yet it was said by the Lord not once but twice: "Amen, amen, I say to you." Now learn from the repetition how great an affirmation has been made.