Hilary of Poitiers on Oaths

Hilary of Poitiers on Oaths

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Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew, 4:23-24

Written c. 355 CE

Source: Saint Hilary (Bishop of Poitiers). 2012. Commentary on Matthew, p. 70-71 (4:23-24). Translated by D.H. Williams. The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, Volume 125. Washington, D.C.: CUA Press.

Again you have heard that it was said by the ancients: “You shall not make false witness,” etc. The Law has established a penalty for making false witness because the taking of an oath was supposed to repress a fraudulent conscience. In like manner, simple folk and the inexperienced make frequent mention of their god by habitually swearing an oath. Yet faith removes the habit of oathtaking and establishes the affairs of our lives in the truth. Once we have rejected an inclination toward deceit, a straightforward manner of speaking and hearing is prescribed so that whatever is the case, it is what it is, and whatever is not the case, it is not, because there exists between yes and no a possibility for deceit, and whatever is beyond these, is complete evil. For whatever is, is always what it is of itself, but whatever is not, is by nature not to be. For those who come in the simplicity of faith, there is no need for the observation of an oath;'" what is "yes" is always "yes," and what is "no" is always "no." For these reasons, every work and word of theirs is trustworthy.

Nor shall you swear by heaven since it is the throne of God, etc. Not only does the Lord not permit us to render oaths unto God, because all of God's truth ought to be retained in a straightforward manner by our words and deeds, but he also condemns the superstitious pride of the ancients. Among Jews there was an observance of swearing by the names of the elements in heaven and the earth, of Jerusalem, and of their own heads. In this way they offered veneration with an oath; [however, it] served as an insult to God. What was the impulse for swearing by heaven, the throne of God, or swearing by the earth—the footstool of his feet—or swearing by Jerusalem, a city which was soon going to be destroyed on account of its inhabitants' arrogance and sins? Had not that city of the great king been established especially as a prefiguring of the Church, that is, the body of Christ? Why do they want to swear by their own heads? Is there a chance of changing even one hair by swearing, when nature (as effected by God) assigns a color to every person? The Lord therefore shows that their confidence in making an oath is full of impiety since they are participants of a religion of works, having ignored or neglected their Maker.

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Hilary of Poitiers, Tractatus super Psalmos, 121.1

Written c. 364-367 CE.

Source: PL 9:661

Coelum anhelans hunc psalmum capit. Spes nostra. - Quispe coelestis desiderii detinetur, nihil obscuritatis in psalmo habebit: ex suo enim sensu intelligentiam propheticae magniloquentiae consequetur; namque ( id est, quippe cum) cum se meminerit scriptum Dei cohaeredem et consortem aeternorum bonorum, et similem angelis ex resurrectione renovandum, et corruptione deposita in gloriam Dei ac Domini nostri Iesu Christi corporis conformandum, futurumque incolam civitatis coelestis vivis lapidibus exstructae, de qua scriptum est in Evangelio, cum Dominus iurare per coelum inhibuisset, adiecit, dicens: Neque per Ierosolymam, quia civitas est regis magni (Matth. V, 35).