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MATTHEW 5:34 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 5:33Matt 5:35
“But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:”
But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God. The prohibition is on the entire practice of oath-taking, not merely on false oaths. The reason is that every element of the created order — heaven, earth, Jerusalem, one's own head — belongs to God, making any oath sworn by any of them an implicit oath by God. The attempt to distinguish between binding and non-binding oaths based on what is sworn by is revealed as evasion: there is no created thing that stands outside God's sovereignty that could be sworn by without invoking God.

Church Fathers on Matthew 5:34

The Lord has hitherto taught to abstain from injuring our neighbour, forbidding anger with murder, lust with adultery, and the putting away a wife with a bill of divorce. He now proceeds to teach to abstain from injury to God, forbidding not only perjury as an evil in itself, but even all oaths as the cause of evil, saying, 'Ye have heard it said by them of old, Thou shalt not forswear thyself.'

Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation · non occ.

This was allowed under the Law, as to children; as they offered sacrifice to God, that they might not do it to idols, so they were permitted to swear by God; not that the thing was right, but that it were better done to God than to daemons.

Jerome · 4th century

For no man can swear often, but he must sometimes forswear himself; as he who has a custom of much speaking will sometimes speak foolishly.

Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century
Read all 15 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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Matthew 5:34 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy