1 Kings 18.15:
| 18.15 ויאמר אליהו | Eliyahuα says, |
|---|---|
| חי יהוה צבאות | “By the life of Fighting Yahweh, |
| אשר עמדתי לפניו | whose face I stand before, |
| כי היום אראה אליו׃ | now, this day, I show myself to him.”β |
One of the things I notice in the Elijah story is the amount of swearing. I don’t mean profanity. There is profanity in the bible, though not much; most translators tend to use euphemisms instead of equivalent English profanities. But what I’m talking about is how Elijah or Obadiah or the Sidonian widow swear by the life of Yahweh. Here, it’s the life of Fighting Yahweh, or as it’s usually translated, “Yahweh of the Armies,” or “the LORD of Hosts.” More specifically it means “Yahweh the Army-Coordinator.” I suppose that sounded more impressive than just plain Yahweh—he had to swear by Ass-Kicking Yahweh.
It’s a bit of a contrast from Jesus and James’s encouragements to not swear. You shouldn’t have to swear by God’s life; “yes” should be yes, “no” should be no, and as I say sometimes, “maybe” should be maybe—instead of a way to avoid saying no. None of the folks in this story should have to swear by God’s life as a way to emphatically declare that they’re telling the truth.
But what also strikes me is the way in which these folks really don’t understand what they’re swearing by. In the year 33, God died.
Yeah, we Christians know—He didn’t stay dead. But I’m sure the oath “by God‘s life” sounded pretty bloody absolute to the folks of the minus-8th century. God is the source of all life; God is eternal; swearing by His life sounds like the ultimate thing you could swear by. Except it actually wasn’t; and nobody but God knew at the time that He was going to lay down His life for humanity’s sins.
Most of our oaths are pretty meaningless, and here—contrary to their expectations—is just an example of another one. In the Middle Ages people even swore by God’s death. Give ’em something to swear on, and they will. The point is that it’s all just so ridiculous, and emphasizes stuff that really doesn’t need the extra punctuation.
This is sort of an aside anyway. Next time, back to the Elijah story.
α. Elijah.
β. Ahab.
