What is an Oath?

“Oaths are but words, and words but wind.”

~ Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part II, Canto II, Line 107

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Due to the nature of my study on oaths in early Christianity (from New Testament to early Middle Ages), a working definition of an oath, along with a distinction from vows must be made, with regards oaths and vows in both ancient Judaism and ancient Greco-Roman culture. This is an important starting point as in modern usage; oaths and vows tend to be synonyms for one another. As oaths and vows take many forms, I intend to produce a working definition that will generalise rather than specify such that all forms can be covered, in a brief but broad statement. A number of studies and definitions are reviewed to produce definitions for oaths and vows and distinction between the two.

Oaths

Oaths in the Old Testament

Blane Conklin in his study of oaths in Biblical Hebrew defines an oath as follows:[1]

An oath may involve an assertion (whether an affirmation or a denial) concerning a state of affairs in the past or present. It may also involve a promise of something in the future. But an oath is more than a mere assertion or a mere promise. It also includes a statement of sincerity or earnestness: the person who swears the oath is committed to certain consequences or sanctions. At the very least, an oath (whether assertory or promissory) must satisfy the stakeholders that the person uttering the oath really means what she is asserting or promising.

In the previous section, I noted that an oath broadly consists of two elements: (1) a statement of sincerity, or, as I shall refer to it throughout my study, an authenticating element; and (2) the actual content of the oath. An oath may elaborate on these elements or add others, but at a minimum, an oath must contain these two elements.

Oaths in Greco-Roman Society

Alan Sommerstein, defines a Greco-Roman Oath as follows:[2]

An oath, then, is an utterance whereby the speaker – the swearer – does the following three things simultaneously.

(1) The swearer makes a declaration. This may be a statement about the present or past, in which case the oath is assertory; or it may be an undertaking for the future, in which case the oath is promissory.

(2) The swearer specifies, explicitly or implicitly, a superhuman power or powers as witnesses to the declaration and guarantors of its truth. In English the swearer is said to swear “by” (sometimes, colloquially, “to”) this power or powers; in Greek the guarantor power was normally the direct object of the verb of swearing – strictly speaking, one did not in Greek “swear by Zeus”, for example; rather, one “swore Zeus”.

(3) The swearer calls down a conditional curse on him/herself, to take effect if the assertion is false or if the promise is violated, as the case may be; that is, (s)he prays that in that event (s)he may suffer punishment from the guarantor power. This element need not be explicitly spelt out; it is often left to be understood from the words of the oath itself, particularly the performative verb “I swear” (in Greek omnumi, later omnuō); but it can always be made explicit when there is need for special assurance. At any rate, whether explicit or not, it is the key defining feature of an oath: an oath is a declaration whose credibility is fortified by a conditional self-curse.

More General Definitions

Mellissa Mohr[3] defines an oath as:

“Swearing an oath means calling on God to witness that a person is telling the truth or intending to fulfill a promise.”

John M. Gray[4] defines an oath as:7

An oath, most simply and universally defined, is citing someone (or something) as witness to the truth of one’s statement. Yet because the purpose of an oath is to make the person to whom it is sworn believe that the swearer’s statement is true, the person or being cited as witness must possess greater authority than the swearer, otherwise the witness adds nothing to the credibility of the swearer.

Vows

Old Testament Vows

In his study of Vows in the Bible and other ANE cultures Cartledge[5] defines Hebrew vows as the following:

The basic form [of Biblical Vows] is as follows:

1. The Protasis: “If you...” (or “if God…”): ‘im followed by one or more imperfect or perfect verbs, all attached by w-.
2. The Apotasis: “Then I will…”: a perfect consecutive verb, some-times followed by imperfects.

These vows are usually motivated by some special need and always directed toward God (never toward another person). The intrinsically conditional nature of these vows has seldom been appreciated because modem 'vows' are usually unconditional, and contemporary ethical standards deprecate any idea of a commercial bargain with God.

Greco-Roman Vows

In his study of vows in Greece and Rome, Hahn[6]  defines a vow as the following:

A vow is conventionally defined as a prayer promising an offering to a deity, conditional upon fulfillment of some request, a form often identified as da ut dem (“give so that I may give”).

In a similar context, Ferguson[7] defines a vow as the following:

A vow in the formal sense was a conditional promise to make a certain sacrifice if a request was granted.

Distinction of Oath and Vow

Jo-Ann Martens[8] in her study on Oaths and Vows in Judaism and Jesus’ take on the same, noted the following:

Oaths and vows during the Second Temple period were types of religious expression each with distinct formulations and purposes. By way of contrast with modern English usage, no general confusion is discernible in the literature of the period. Any apparent confusion of oaths and vows reflects either the application of laws governing one to the other or the use of vow-terms or vows as substitutes in oath formulae.

My Working Definitions and Distinctions

Oath: An oath is the invocation of a deity (usually, often with an implicit or explicit self-curse), to convince another (either an individual or group, but not the Deity) of the truth of a given statement (either assertory or promissory).

Vow: A vow is a conditional (usually) promise made to a deity.

In my study of oaths in early Christianity, it will be generally understood that oaths and vows are distinct, yet there may be cases of confusion or overlap, especially in late antiquity/early middle ages. It will also be understood that oaths may not include the invocation of a deity or a specified self-curse, though that is the norm. Vows will be understood as promises to a deity, usually conditional, yet due to the evolving nature of vows in the time in question, may also be unconditional.

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[1] Blane Conklin, Oath Formulas in Biblical Hebrew, p. 2,4 (Winona Lake, IN, USA: Eisenbrauns, 2011),

[2] Alan H. Sommerstein and Isabelle C. Torrance, Oaths and Swearing in Ancient Greece, p.1-2 (Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2014).

[3] Melissa Mohr, Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, p. 55 (Oxford University Press, 2013).

[4] Jonathan Michael Gray, Oaths and the English Reformation, p. 19 (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

[5] Tony W. Cartledge, Vows in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, p. 17 (A&C Black, 1992).

[6] Frances Hickson Hahn, “Vow, Greece and Rome,” in The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013)

[7] Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, p. 192 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003).

[8] Jo-Ann A. Martens, “A Second Best Voyage: Judaism and Jesus on Oaths and Vows” (thesis, 1991), p. 318.