oath

(ōth)

1. 1. A solemn, formal declaration or promise to fulfill a pledge, often calling on God, a god, or a sacred object as witness.
   2. The words or formula of such a declaration or promise.
   3. Something declared or promised.
2. An irreverent or blasphemous use of the name of God or something held sacred.
3. An imprecation; a curse.

[Middle English oth, from Old English āth.]

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noun

A profane or obscene term: blasphemy, curse, epithet, expletive, swearword. Informal cuss. See decent/indecent, sacred/profane, words.

Definition: curse
Antonyms: kindness, pleasantry

n

Definition: promise
Antonyms: break

In the biblical view, the spoken word is charged with intrinsic power to effect good or evil, blessing or curse. Hence, an oath carries with it an explicit or implicit curse, if the oath taken proves false or is violated. The words curse and oath are virtually synonymous and are used interchangeably (I Kgs 8:31).

The oath taken by the exiles concludes with the words: "Let my right hand forget her skill� Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth" (Ps 137:5-7). The phrase "God do so and more also," an introductory formula of an oath, is a distinct allusion to a self-imposed curse (I Sam 14:44; II Sam 3:9).

One may well conclude that every oath carried with it a curse either explicit or implied. The same may be said of the oath that ratified a covenant or treaty between two parties. Deuteronomy 29:14 speaks of "this covenant and this oath" as does Daniel 9:11. When Zedekiah violated his treaty with Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek 17:15), Ezekiel described the consequences in the following terms: "� can he break the covenant and still be delivered? As I live, says the Lord God, surely, in the place where the king dwells� whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke – with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die" (Ezek 17:15-16).

An oath could begin or end by invoking the name of God. A common introductory formula opens with the words: "By the life of Yahweh" (or, alternatively translated "As Yahweh lives" Judg 8:19; I Sam 14:39; 19:6; I Kgs 17:1). These phrases are elliptical and one must add "who will punish me if I swear falsely or fail to fulfill this oath". Somewhat less frequent was the locution "as you live, my Lord the king" (II Sam 11:11; 14:19). Occasionally, "as the Lord lives" and "as my Lord the king lives" were joined for emphasis as in II Samuel 15:21.

To swear in the name of a deity other than the God of Israel was tantamount to idolatry. Amos (8:14) denounced those who "swear by the sin of Samaria� And as the way of Beersheba lives". The Psalmist (Ps 16:4) proclaimed that he would not take the name of another god on his lips. This accords with the command (Deut 6:13-14) to swear in the name of God.

God himself is often described as taking an oath, e.g., Genesis 22.16; 26:3; Exodus 33:1; Numbers 14:23. All these refer to the divine oath that he will give the land to the descendants of Abraham. However, an oath by God may be elicited by a specific occasion or situation (I Sam 3:14; Jer 22:5). Psalm 89:4 refers to God's oath to David to establish his kingdom and his house forever.

An oath could be imposed upon an underling by someone in a superior position anxious to ensure that his charge be carried out. So Abraham adjured his servant, the elder of his house (Gen 24:2-4). Likewise, Jacob caused Joseph to swear that he would not bury him in Egypt but rather in the burying place of his fathers in the land of Canaan (Gen 47:29-31).

Mention is made of the gesture of raising a hand or hands heavenward while taking an oath: "Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted my hand to the Lord" (Gen 14:22). The phrase is the equivalent of taking an oath (Ezek 20:6; Dan 12:7).

Because pronouncing an oath is an act of holiness, its violation is a profanation of the name of God and subjects one to divine punishment. Both versions of the Ten Commandments proscribe swearing falsely (Ex 20:7; Deut 5:11). The commandment contains the additional phrase "for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain". The injunction against a false oath is likewise found in Leviticus (19:12). Even an oath violated through being unwittingly forgotten must be atoned for by means of a sin offering brought as a sacrifice (Lev 5:4-6). An oath must be kept even if it brings one harm (Ps 15:4).

Distinct from voluntary oaths are judicial oaths, mandatory in certain court procedures. When no decision can be reached by the judge, or if the accused cannot produce witnesses in his defense, recourse was found by subjecting the accused to an oath. Several such instances are grouped together in Exodus 22:6-11. Here the oath apparently terminated the case. Leviticus (6:2-5) prescribes the procedure to be followed in a civil case when a man admits to having sworn falsely. He must pay the value of the object claimed and add thereto a fifth of its value. Moreover, the offense having been committed not against his fellow man alone, but also against God, the offender's monetary restitution must be supplemented by a guilt offering (Lev 6:6-7).

The inviolability of an oath once uttered, even when elicited under false pretenses, is to be inferred from the account (Josh 9:2-19) of the covenant made by Joshua with the Gibeonites who claimed that they had come from a far-off country. When it was discovered that the Gibeonites lived nearby, the people protested and inclined to disregard the treaty. But Joshua and the princes reply: "�we have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel, now therefore we may not touch them" (Josh 9:19).

Non-Israelites in the future will take an oath of allegiance to God to express their loyalty to him (Is 19:18; 45:23). Only Ecclesiastes contains a warning against taking an oath (Ecc 5:4-5), which is followed by Ecclesiasticus 23:9ff.

Jesus' condemnation of oaths (Matt 5:33-37) may be understood as referring to oaths in ordinary, everyday speech and not to judicial oaths. "�do not swear at all; neither by heaven�nor by the earth� nor by Jerusalem�nor shall you swear by your head." (The latter locution as an introductory formula for an oath is quite common in rabbinic sources). If, however, this condemnation is taken to include all oaths, then it differs substantially from that of rabbinic Judaism. While the latter condemned rash and needless oaths, it did not, on the whole, either condemn nor forbid all oaths. Jesus demanded of his followers (James 5:12) that "let your yes be yes, and your no no". A similar statement is also to be found in the Talmud. Finally, Jesus railed against the Pharisees to say "whoever swears by the Temple it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the Temple, he is obliged to perform it" (Matt 23:16). Paul employed oaths to prove his truthfulness (Rom 1:9; II Cor 1:23; 11:31; Gal 1:20). See also vow.

Any type of attestation by which an individual signifies that he or she is bound in conscience to perform a particular act truthfully and faithfully; a solemn declaration of truth or obligation.

An individual's appeal to God to witness the truth of what he or she is saying or a pledge to do something enforced by the individual's responsibility to answer to God.

Similarly an affirmation is a solemn and formal declaration that a statement is true; however, an affirmation includes no reference to God so it can be made by someone who does not believe in God or by an individual who has conscientious objections against swearing to God. Provisions in state statutes or constitutions ordinarily allow affirmations to be made as alternatives to oaths.

In order for an oath to be legally effective, it must be administered by a public official. The law creating each public office and describing the duties of the official ordinarily indicates who is authorized to administer the oath of office. A spoken oath is generally sufficient; however, a written and signed oath can be required by law.

The most famous oath prescribed by law in the United States is the oath repeated by the president-elect upon taking the office of the presidency.

n.

In law, a solemn appeal to the Deity, made binding upon the conscience by a penalty for perjury.

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An affirmation of the truth of a statement that renders one who is willfully asserting untrue statements punishable for perjury.

• Customs, Formalities, and Practices - oath: affirmation or solemn pledge binding one to tell the truth according to the law, after which false statements are punishable as perjury
• Rhetoric and Figures of Speech - oath: any profane expression, esp. one irreverent toward God

This article is about promise or a statement of fact. For the village in Somerset, England, see Oath, Somerset. For the racehorse, see Oath (horse). For acronyms, see OATH (disambiguation).

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since December 2006. It may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since June 2008.

"Tennis Court Oath" by Jacques-Louis David

Henry Kissinger places his hand on a Bible as he is sworn in as Secretary of State, 1973

"Lwów Oath" by Jan Matejko

An oath (from Anglo-Saxon āð, also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath, to make a solemn vow. Those who conscientiously object to making an oath will often make an affirmation instead.

The essence of a divine oath is an invocation of divine agency to be a guarantor of the oath taker's own honesty and integrity in the matter under question. By implication, this invokes divine displeasure if the oath taker fails in their sworn duties. It therefore implies greater care than usual in the act of the performance of one's duty, such as in testimony to the facts of the matter in a court of law.

A person taking an oath indicates this in a number of ways. The most usual is the explicit "I swear," but any statement or promise that includes "with * as my witness" or "so help me *," with '*' being something or someone the oath-taker holds sacred, is an oath. Many people take an oath by holding in their hand or placing over their head a book of scripture or a sacred object, thus indicating the sacred witness through their action: such an oath is called corporal. However, the chief purpose of such an act is for ceremony or solemnity, and the act does not of itself make an oath.^{[citation needed]}

In the United States and some other countries, it is customary to raise the right hand while swearing an oath, whether or not the left hand is laid on a Bible or other text. This custom has been explained with reference to medieval practices of branding palms,^[1]. However the practice is referred to in the Old Testament ("Their mouths speak untruth; their right hands are raised in lying oaths", Psalm 144:8). In England the common form of court oath is to swear with the right hand on the Bible, though alternatives are available.

There is confusion between oaths and other statements or promises. The current Olympic Oath, for instance, is really a pledge and not properly an oath since there is only a "promise" and no appeal to a sacred witness. Oaths are also confused with vows, but really, a vow is a special kind of oath.

Contents 1 In law 2 In Islamic tradition 3 Greco-Roman tradition 4 Jewish tradition 5 Christian tradition 6 Germanic tradition 7 Types of oaths 8 Famous oaths 8.1 Fictional 9 Other meanings 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 13 External links

In law

In law, oaths are made by a witness to a court of law before giving testimony and usually by a newly-appointed government officer to the people of a state before taking office. In both of those cases, though, an affirmation can be usually substituted. A written statement, if the author swears the statement is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is called an affidavit. The oath given to support an affidavit is frequently administered by a notary, who will certify the giving of the oath by affixing her or his seal to the document. Willfully delivering a false oath (or affirmation) is the crime of perjury.

In Islamic tradition

Islamic theology takes the fulfillment of oaths most seriously. So much so that one of the sayings of the Muslim prophet Mohammad, commonly referred to as ahadith (singular hadith) instructs Muslims to "Make oaths only on Allah almighty, the Master of all beings, and protect them more than your lives" (Sahih Bukhari 45: 15).

Greco-Roman tradition

In the Roman tradition, oaths were sworn upon Iuppiter Lapis or the Jupiter Stone located in the Temple of Jupiter, Capitoline Hill. Iuppiter Lapis was held in the Roman Tradition to be an Oath Stone, an aspect of Jupiter is his role as divine law-maker responsible for order and used principally for the investiture of the oathtaking of office.

Bailey (1907) states:

We have, for instance, the sacred stone (silex) which was preserved in the temple of Iuppiter on the Capitol, and was brought out to play a prominent part in the ceremony of treaty-making. The fetial, who on that occasion represented the Roman people, at the solemn moment of the oath-taking, struck the sacrificial pig with the silex, saying as he did so, 'Do thou, Diespiter, strike the Roman people as I strike this pig here to-day, and strike them the more, as thou art greater and stronger.' Here no doubt the underlying notion is not merely symbolical, but in origin the stone is itself the god, an idea which later religion expressed in the cult-title specially used in this connection, Iuppiter Lapis.^[2]

Walter Burkert has shown that since Lycurgus of Athens (d. 324 BC), who held that "it is the oath which holds democracy together", religion, morality and political organization had been linked by the oath, and the oath and its prerequisite altar had become the basis of both civil and criminal, as well as international law.^[3]

Jewish tradition

The concept of oaths is deeply rooted within Judaism. It is found in Genesis 8:21, when God swears that he will "never again curse the ground because of man and never again smite every living thing." This repetition of the term never again is explained by Rashi, the preeminent biblical commentator, as serving as an oath, citing the Talmud^[4] for this ruling.^[5]

The first personage in the biblical tradition to take an oath is held to be Eliezer, the chief servant of Abraham, when the latter requested of the former that he not take a wife for his son Isaac from the daughters of Canaan, but rather from among Abraham's own family. In the Judeo-Christian Tradition, this is held as the origination of the concept that it is required to hold a sacred object in one's hand when taking an oath.

See also Alliance (Bible).

Christian tradition

Main article: Expounding of the Law#Oaths

As late as 1880, Charles Bradlaugh was denied a seat as an MP in the Parliament of the United Kingdom as because of his professed atheism he was judged unable to swear the Oath of Allegiance in spite of his proposal to swear the oath as a "matter of form".

Various religious groups have objected to the taking of oaths, most notably the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Mennonites. This is principally based on Matthew 5:34-37, the Antithesis of the Law. Here, Christ is written to say "I say to you: 'Swear not at all'". The Apostle James stated in James 5:12, "Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned." Beyond this scriptural authority, Quakers place importance on being truthful at all times, so the testimony opposing oaths springs from a view that "taking legal oaths implies a double standard of truthfulness...."^[6]

Not all Christians understand this reading as forbidding all types of oaths, however. Opposition to oath-taking among some groups of Christian caused many problems for these groups throughout their history. Quakers were frequently imprisoned because of their refusal to swear loyalty oaths. Testifying in court was also difficult; George Fox, Quakers' founder, famously challenged a judge who had asked him to swear, saying that he would do so once the judge could point to any Bible passage where Jesus or his apostles took oaths. (The judge could not, but this did not allow Fox to escape punishment.) Legal reforms from the 18th century onwards mean that everyone in the United Kingdom now has the right to make a solemn affirmation instead of an oath. The United States has permitted affirmations since it was founded; it is explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. Only two US Presidents, Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover (who was a Quaker), have chosen to affirm rather than swear at their inaugurations.

Germanic tradition

Roland swears fealty to Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste.

Further information: Symbel and Feudalism

Germanic warrior culture was significantly based on oaths of fealty, directly continued into medieval notions of chivalry.

A prose passage inserted in the eddic poem Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar relates:

Hedin was coming home alone from the forest one Yule-eve, and found a troll-woman; she rode on a wolf, and had snakes in place of a bridle. She asked Hedin for his company. "Nay," said he. She said, "Thou shalt pay for this at the bragarfull." That evening the great vows were taken; the sacred boar was brought in, the men laid their hands thereon, and took their vows at the bragarfull. Hedin vowed that he would have Sváva, Eylimi's daughter, the beloved of his brother Helgi; then such great grief seized him that he went forth on wild paths southward over the land, and found Helgi, his brother.

Such Norse traditions are directly parallel to the "bird oaths" of late medieval France, such as the voeux du faisan (oath on the pheasant) or the (fictional) voeux du paon (oath on the peacock).^[7]

Types of oaths

• Hippocratic Oath
• Hittite military oath
• Oaths of allegiance
• Oaths of citizenship
• Oath of office
• Pauper's oath
• Veterinarian's Oath

Famous oaths

by Raja Ravi Varma]]

• Anti-Modernist oath
• Ironclad oath
• Oaths in Freemasonry
• Oath More Judaico (Jewish)
• Oaths of Strasbourg
• Scout Oath
• Tennis Court Oath

Fictional

• Oath of Eorl
• Oath of Fëanor
• Oath of the Peach Garden
• Oath of Bhisma

Other meanings

The word "oath" is often used to mean any angry expression which includes religious or other strong language used as an expletive.

See also

• ACLU of N.C. & Syidah Matteen v. State of North Carolina a court case in a state of the United States about taking oaths by different scriptures. The results have reversed several times.
• Australasian Police Multicultural Advisory Bureau has several publications for Australia dealing with multi-faith issues and A Practical Reference to Religious Diversity for Operational Police and Emergency Services covers oaths as well as many other topics (in review as of 12/2/2006 but the 2nd Edition is available.)
• Ephebic Oath
• So help me God
• Sworn declaration

Notes

1. ^ www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=454360
2. ^ In Chapter Two: The 'Antecedents' of Roman Religion. Source: [1] (accessed: August 21, 2007)^{[dead link]}
3. ^ Burkert, Greek Religion, trans. Raffan, Harvard University Press (1985), 250ff.
4. ^ Shavous 36a
5. ^ Metsudah Chumash and Rashi, KTAV Publishing House, 1991. page 88
6. ^ Faith and Practice of Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (1988) p. 19
7. ^ Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages (ch. 3); Michel Margue, „Vogelgelübde“ am Hof des Fürsten. Ritterliches Integrationsritual zwischen Traditions- und Gegenwartsbezug (14. – 15. Jahrhundert)

References

Bailey, Cyril (1907). The Religion of Ancient Rome. London, UK: Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd. (Source: Project Gutenburg. Accessed: March 16, 2011)

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Oaths

Look up oath in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oaths

• Oaths in the Qur'an
• Courtroom oaths from the North Dakota Supreme Court website (jury oath, witness oath and so on)
• North Carolina faith leaders supporting Quran oath
• Comments about John Quincy Adams' Oath of Office

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - ed

idioms:

• on oath    under ed
• under oath    under ed

Nederlands (Dutch)
eed, gelofte, vloek

Français (French)
n. - (Jur) serment, juron

idioms:

• on oath    (GB) sous serment
• under oath    (GB) sous serment

Deutsch (German)
n. - Fluch, Eid, Schwur

idioms:

• on oath    unter Eid
• under oath    unter Eid

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - όρκος, βλαστήμια

idioms:

• on oath    με όρκο, ενόρκως
• under oath    ενόρκως, με όρκο

Italiano (Italian)
imprecazione, giuramento

idioms:

• on/under oath    sotto giuramento

Português (Portuguese)
n. - juramento (m), blasfêmia (f)

idioms:

• on/under oath    sob juramento

Русский (Russian)
клятва, присяга

idioms:

• on/under oath    под присягой

Español (Spanish)
n. - blasfemia, palabrota, reniego, juramento, voto

idioms:

• on oath    bajo juramento
• under oath    bajo juramento

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ed, svordom

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
誓言, 诅咒, 宣誓

idioms:

• on oath    发誓
• under oath    经宣誓, 在誓言的约束下

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 誓言, 詛咒, 宣誓

idioms:

• on oath    發誓
• under oath    經宣誓, 在誓言的約束下

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 맹세 , 신명남용(욕)

idioms:

• under oath    맹세코

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 誓い, 誓言, 神名濫用, ののしり

idioms:

• on/under oath    宣誓して

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) قسم, وعد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮שבועה, קללה‬

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