Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Treatises of Cyprian/Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews/Book III/Part 12
12. That we must not swear.
In Solomon: “A man that sweareth much shall be filled with iniquity, and the plague shall not depart from his house; and if he swear vainly, he shall not be justified.”[1] Of this same matter, according to Matthew: “(Again, ye have heard that it was said to them of old, Thou shalt not swear falsely, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.) I say unto you, Swear not at all: (neither by heaven, because it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, because it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King; neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.) But let your discourse be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: (for whatever is fuller than these is of evil.”)[2] Of this same thing in Exodus: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”[3]
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ Ecclus. xxiii. 11. From some ancient text the Oxford edition adds here, “Et si frustra juraverit dupliciter punietur”—“and if he swear with no purpose, he shall be punished doubly.”
- ↑ Matt. v. 34–37. All these passages are wanting in the Oxford text; [also in ed. Paris, 1574].
- ↑ Ex. xx. 7. [Compare old Paris ed. on this section.]