Oath

An oath (from the Anglo-Saxon *āþ*, also called a plight) is a statement of fact or a promise made with a sacred element as a guarantee of truth. For those who object to swearing by a deity, a legal alternative is to give an affirmation. Today, even when no religious sanctity is involved, certain promises spoken aloud in ceremonial or legal settings are still called oaths. The verb "to swear" describes the act of taking an oath or making a solemn vow.

**Etymology** The word comes from the Anglo-Saxon *āþ*, meaning "judicial swearing, solemn appeal to a deity in witness of truth or a promise." It traces back to Proto-Germanic *aiþaz* and Proto-Indo-European *oi-to-*, meaning "an oath." The term is common to Celtic and Germanic languages, possibly borrowed from one to the other.

**Historical development as a legal concept**

**Jewish tradition** Oaths are deeply rooted in Judaism. In Genesis 8:21, God swears He will "never again curse the ground because of man and never again smite every living thing." The repetition of "never again" is explained by the commentator Rashi as an oath, citing the Talmud Shavous 36a. The first person in the Bible to take an oath is Abraham’s chief servant (often identified as Eliezer of Damascus, though the passage does not name him). Abraham asked him to find a wife for Isaac from Abraham’s own family in Aram-naharaim (Nahor), not from Canaan. The servant swore by placing his hand under Abraham’s thigh, and the oath stipulated that if the chosen woman refused to return to Canaan, the servant would be released from his obligation. The foundational text for oath-making is Numbers 30:2: "When a man voweth a vow unto the Lord, or sweareth an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth." Rabbis distinguish between a *neder* (vow), which changes the status of an external object, and a *shvua* (oath), which initiates an internal change in the person swearing.

**Roman tradition** In Rome, oaths were sworn upon Iuppiter Lapis, the Jupiter Stone, kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. This stone was considered an Oath Stone, representing Jupiter as divine lawmaker and used for the investiture of oaths of office. According to Cyril Bailey in *The Religion of Ancient Rome* (1907), the sacred stone (silex) was brought out for treaty-making. The fetial, representing the Roman people, struck a sacrificial pig with the stone while saying, "Do thou, Diespiter, strike the Roman people as I strike this pig today, and strike them the more, as thou art greater and stronger." The underlying notion was that the stone itself was the god, later expressed in the cult title Iuppiter Lapis. The punisher of broken oaths was the infernal deity Orcus.

**Hindu tradition** In Hindu epics like the *Ramayana* and *Mahabharata*, oaths (called *pratigya*) are taken seriously; people would give up their lives rather than break a vow. King Dasharatha took an oath to his queen Kaikeyi (at her maid Manthara’s insistence) and thus exiled his favorite son, Lord Rama, along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, to the forest for fourteen years. In the *Mahabharata*, Devrata took an oath of celibacy so that Satyavati’s father would allow her to marry Devrata’s father, King Shantanu. He also swore not to rule the kingdom and to remain loyal to the king, a descendant of Satyavati. For this, Devrata was named Bhishma, meaning "one who has taken a terrible oath." Many other characters also fulfilled their oaths.

**Greek tradition** Walter Burkert noted that from Lycurgus of Athens (d. 324 BCE), who held that "it is the oath which holds democracy together," religion, morality, and political organization were linked by the oath. The oath and its prerequisite altar became the basis of civil, criminal, and international law. In traditional Greek folk songs, such as *The Dead Brother’s Song*, the power of an oath transcends death, as a deceased brother rises from the grave to fulfill his oath to his mother.

**Christian tradition** Various Christian denominations object to taking oaths, notably the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Anabaptist groups like Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and Schwarzenau Brethren. This is based on Matthew 5:34–37, the Antithesis of the Law, where Christ says, "Swear not at all." James the Just states in 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." Quakers emphasize truthfulness at all times, viewing legal oaths as implying a double standard of truthfulness—suggesting that truth in legal contexts is more important than truth elsewhere.