Fathers

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What the Fathers say

James 5:12

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

Let your affirmation be firm in firmness and your negation be the same. Otherwise: let the testimony of your life be firmer than an oath. If someone shameless, not respecting your life, insistently demands an oath from you, then instead of an oath let your "yes, yes" and "no, no" suffice. By hypocrisy he means either the condemnation that will befall those who swear recklessly and from the habit of swearing fall into perjury, or hypocrisy itself, which is one thing and appears another. …

Commentary on James ↗

Oecumenius

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath. But let your yes be yes, and your no be no, so that you do not fall into hypocrisy. But someone will say: If someone is compelled to swear, what should be done? We say that the fear of God will be stronger than the necessity imposing force. However, someone might doubt, since the old law holds that those who swear by the name of the Lord are worthy of praise, how does grace forbid this? …

Commentary on James ↗

Western Saints

Bede

This is the judgment to which Herod fell victim, so that he found that he had either to break his oath or commit another shameful act in order to avoid breaking it.

Homilies on the Gospels 2.23 ↗