Matthew 5.33-37, Numbers 30.2.
5.33
The following previously appeared on my religion blog, More Christ.
There are three things people mean by “swearing”—oaths, curses, and profanities. I’ll discuss those things another time. Right now I’ll discuss what Jesus had to say about oaths.
Jesus’s quote is not a direct quote. It summarizes what the Law had to say about oaths:
When a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears by his life to obligate himself, he will not break his word, as if it’s any casual thing that came out of his mouth. He will do this.
—Moses, Numbers 30.2
The trouble is that people believe in two levels of truthfulness. There are the things we regularly say, which are usually honest: Most of the time, most of us will tell the truth. But sometimes we won’t. If it’s an inconvenient or uncomfortable fact, or if we’re trying to get out of trouble or a responsibility, we’ll lie. We call them “little white lies,” because we figure there won’t be any consequences for these lies… unless, or until, the person we’ve lied to finds them out.
Just about everyone lies. Which is why, when we’re in one of those uncomfortable situations where we’d ordinarily lie—but this time, the truth is expected or required—oaths get involved. “Do you swear you’re telling me the truth?” … “I swear to God I’m not lying.”
This is what Jesus was talking about. The fact that we’re obligated to swear we’re telling the truth—or that we’re obligated to swear that we’ll do what we claim we will—means that we’re following these two levels of truthfulness. We’re not always being honest. We’re not consistently going out of our way to do everything we claim we will. We’re willing to accept convenient fictions, from time to time, and we’re even willing to consider it socially acceptable, or downplay the lies by calling them little white ones. But they’re still lies.
The NLT translates this so it sounds like Jesus is sorta blaming the devil for it: “Anything beyond this is from the evil one.” The devil is, after all, the father of lies. (Jn 8.44) Certainly it would be in the devil’s best interest to have our culture think it’s perfectly okay to maintain two levels of truthfulness—because when we finally stand before God, the devil can accuse us of using it to our advantage. But v37 can also be translated “Anything beyond this is out of evil,” and that’s quite true too. It might be a very small evil—some might even call it a necessary evil—but it’s evil all the same.
You might notice that Jesus is mocking some of the oaths that people of His day used to use. The first three—swearing by heaven, by earth, or by Jerusalem—were euphemisms the Jews used to use for swearing to God. Supposedly if you swore to God (or nowadays, swear on the bible, or even on a stack of bibles) that’s a big deal. But swearing by heaven, earth, or Jerusalem, was not swearing to God, and so it wasn’t so big a deal if you broke those oaths. In critiquing those oaths, Jesus pointed out that technically you were swearing to God—He lives in heaven, He walks on earth, and Jerusalem is His city. So when you’re trying to get around swearing in the name of someone who will hold you to your oaths, you’re really not.
Today’s equivalents are “I swear on my life,” or “I swear on my mother’s grave” or “I swear on the lives of my children.” Three things, you notice, that are likewise in God’s hands and under His control. We may try to dodge God’s obligations in our oaths, but no matter what we might say, all the meaningful ones are ultimately based on Him.
Jesus used “I swear by my head” to point this out: “You can’t turn one hair white or black.” (I pointed out when I was a kid that this statement isn’t true anymore, which rather horrified my Sunday school teacher… which is odd, ’cause she’d been living proof of it for years.) Anything we might swear by isn’t really in our control… and to some degree, it’s putting a curse on the things we swear by if we aren’t honest, or don’t fulfill our obligations. (But more on that when I write about curses.)
Jesus’s solution: Let your “yes” be yes. Let your “no” be no. That’s all.
The “little white lies” we tell to smooth things over? Drop them. There’s always an honest alternative. “I’d rather not say” is probably the simplest one. “Don’t ask me such questions” is another. No, these statements don’t keep people as blissfully unaware as a lie does, but they shouldn’t be blissfully unaware. We shouldn’t dodge our responsibilities… and when it’s none of their business, people need to be told so.
I often add to Jesus’s teaching: Let your “maybe” be maybe. People think I’m joking, but I’m quite serious: When we say “maybe,” it ought not be our way to avoid saying “no.” Too often, that’s exactly what we mean by it. (Kids pick this up quickly.) There’s nothing wrong with saying maybe—it’s far better than saying “yes” and not following through—but it should mean that sometime soon it had better turn into a yes or no, and that either yes or no is a possible option.
But that’s just my advice. Jesus’s is more important: Say yes. Say no. Swear nothing; it’s not necessary when we’re always honest.
Mt 5.33: Πάλιν ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη τοῖς ἀρχαίοις· again, you all heard that it was said to the old, οὐκ ἐπιορκήσεις, ἀποδώσεις δὲ τῷ κυρίῳ τοὺς ὅρκους σου. not you will perjure, & you will give over to the master the oaths of you. 5.34: ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν μὴ ὀμόσαι ὅλως· & I say to you all, not to swear [or, swearing] altogether; μήτε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὅτι θρόνος ἐστὶν τοῦ θεοῦ, neither by the universe, that throne it is of the God, 5.35: μήτε ἐν τῇ γῇ, ὅτι ὑποπόδιόν ἐστιν τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ, neither by the earth, that under-foot it is of the feet of him, μήτε εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, ὅτι πόλις ἐστὶν τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως, neither to Jerusalem, that city it is of the great king, 5.36: μήτε ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ σου ὀμόσῃς, ὅτι οὐ δύνασαι μίαν τρίχα λευκὴν ποιῆσαι ἢ μέλαιναν. neither by the head of you you might swear, that not you are able one hair white doing [or, to do], or black. 5.37: ἔστω δὲ ὁ λόγος ὑμῶν ναὶ ναί, οὒ οὔ· & you do! the word of you, yes yes, no no; τὸ δὲ περισσὸν τούτων ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἐστιν. & the superabundant of these, out of evil it is.
Dt 30.3: אִישׁ כִּי־יִדֹּר נֶדֶר לַיהוָה a man, when he’s vowing a vow to YHWH, אוֹ־הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה לֶאְסֹר אִסָּר עַל־נַפְשׁוֹ or swearing an oath to bind an obligation to the life of him, לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ not he’s damaging [the] word of him, כְּכָל־הַיֹּצֵא מִפִּיו like all the [ones] going out from mouth of him, יַעֲשֶׂה׃ he’s doing.
