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MATTHEW 5:36 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 5:35Matt 5:37
“Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.”
And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. The final oath-form addressed is the personal oath — swearing by one's own head. The prohibition is grounded in the observation that one does not control one's own head: you cannot make one hair white or black. The logic is the same as for the cosmic oaths: swearing by anything that is ultimately God's possession is swearing by God, and the oath therefore should be replaced by simple honest speech.

Church Fathers on Matthew 5:36

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 5:36 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy