You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
Encyclopedia
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain (KJV, also "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God" (NRSV) and variants) is one of the Ten Commandments
.
It is a prohibition of blasphemy
, specifically, the misuse or "taking in vain" of the name
of the God of Israel.
Exodus 20:7 reads:
Based on this commandment, Second Temple Judaism
by the Hellenistic period
developed a taboo of pronouncing the name of God at all, resulting in the replacement of the Tetragrammaton
by "Adonai" (literally "my lords" -- see Adonai) in pronunciation.
In the Hebrew Bible itself, the commandment is directed against abuse of the name of God, not against any use; there are numerous examples in the Hebrew Bible and a few in the New Testament where God’s name is called upon in oaths to tell the truth or to support the truth of the statement being sworn to, and the books of Daniel
and Revelation
include instances where an angel sent by God invokes the name of God to support the truth of apocalyptic revelations. God himself is presented as swearing by his own name (“As surely as I live …”) to guarantee the certainty of various events foretold through the prophet
s.
Some have interpreted the commandment to be against perjury, since invoking God’s name in an oath
was considered a guarantee of the truth of a statement or promise.
Other scholars believe the original intent was to prohibit using the name in the magical practice of conjuration
.
Old Testament passages also refer to God’s name being profaned by hypocritical behavior of people and false representation of God’s words or character.
Many scholars also believe the commandment applies to the casual use of God’s name in interjections and curses (blasphemy
).
The object of the command "thou shalt not take in vain" is "this-same name of YHWH, thy elohim
", making explicit that the commandment is against the misuse of the proper name Yahweh specifically.
In the Hebrew Bible, as well as in the Ancient Near East
and throughout classical antiquity
more generally, an oath
is a conditional self-curse invoking deities that are asked to inflict punishment on the oath-breaker.
There are numerous examples in the Book of Samuel of people strengthening their statements or promises with the phrase, “As surely as Yahweh lives …” and such statements are referred to in Jeremiah
as well. The value of invoking punishment from God was based on the belief that God cannot be deceived or evaded. For example, a narrative in the Book of Numbers describes how such an oath is to be administered by a priest to a woman suspected of adultery, with the expectation that the accompanying curse will have no effect on an innocent person.
Such oaths may have been used in civil claims, regarding supposed theft, for example, and the commandment is repeated in the context of honest dealings between people in Leviticus 19:12. At one point of the account of the dedication of the Temple of Solomon, Solomon prays to Yahweh, asking him to hear and act upon curses uttered in a dispute that are then brought before his altar, to distinguish between the person in the right and the one in the wrong.
The prophet Isaiah
rebuked Israel as the Babylonian Captivity
drew near, pointing out that they bore the name of God, and swore by him, but their swearing was hypocritical since they had forsaken the exclusive worship of Yahweh for the worship of idols. The Israelites had been told in Leviticus that sacrificing their children to idols and then coming to worship God caused God’s name to be profaned, thus breaking the commandment. According to the Book of Jeremiah
, Yahweh told him to look around Jerusalem, asserting that he would not be able to find an honest man – “Even when they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ they are sure to be swearing falsely.” Jeremiah refers to a situation in which Israelites repented and took oaths in God’s name – only to renege by reclaiming as slaves persons they had freed as part of their repentance. This hypocritical act was also considered profaning God’s name. In Jeremiah 12, an opportunity is also described for Israel’s neighbors to avoid destruction and prosper if they stop swearing by their idol and swear only by the name of Yahweh.
is often indicated by the use of capital and small capital letters, .
Joseph Telushkin
, a Modern Orthodox rabbi, wrote that the commandment is much more than a prohibition against casual interjections using God’s name. He pointed out that the more literal translation of Lo tissa is “you shall not carry” rather than “you shall not take”, and that understanding this helps one understand why the commandment ranks with such as “You shall not murder
” and “You shall not commit adultery
”.
One of the first commandments listed by Maimonides
in the Mishneh Torah
is the responsibility to sanctify God’s name. Maimonides thought the commandment should be taken as generally as possible, and therefore he considered it forbidden to mention God’s name unnecessarily at any time. Jewish scholars referred to this as "motzi shem shamayim lavatalah", “uttering the Name of Heaven uselessly.” To avoid guilt associated with accidentally breaking the commandment, Jewish scholars applied the prohibition to all seven biblical titles of God in addition to the proper name, and established the safeguard of circumlocution when referring to the Name of God. In writing names of God, a common practice includes substituting letters or syllables so that the written word is not exactly the name, or writing the name in an abbreviated manner. Orthodox Jews will not even pronounce a name of God unless it is said in prayer or religious study. The Sacred Name (Tetragrammaton
), is never pronounced by these Jews but always read as “Adonai (the Lord),” “HaShem (the Name),” or sometimes “AdoShem”.
The Kaddish
is an important prayer in a Jewish prayer service whose central theme is the magnification and sanctification of God’s name. Along with the Shema and Amidah
, it is one of the most important and central prayers of Jewish liturgy.
, Jesus taught that a person’s word should be reliable and one should not swear by God or his creation. In his letter, the Apostle James
reiterates the instruction to just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and keep your word, "so that you may not fall into condemnation."
According to David Cook, appeals to authorities to validate the truth of a promise had expanded in Jesus’ day, which was not in line with the original commandment. Jesus is quoted as warning that they were blind and foolish who gave credibility to such arguments.
According to the Gospel of John
, Jesus made appeals to the power of the name of God and also claimed the name of God as his own, which constituted blasphemy if it were not true. The Gospel of John
relates an incident where a group attempts to stone Jesus after he speaks God's name. Jesus says that he is the Messiah, and makes parallels between himself and the “Son of Man” referred to by the prophet Daniel
, which evokes an emphatic response that he has blasphemed (broken the commandment) and deserves death.
The Apostle Paul occasionally invokes God’s name in his letters, calling God as witness to the purity of his motives and honesty of his dealings with the churches to whom he ministered.
The author of Hebrews reviewed God’s promise to Abraham as assurance that outstanding promises will yet be fulfilled. “Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute.” In the case of the promise of God to Abraham, God swore by his own name to guarantee the promise, since there was nothing greater for him to swear by. Philo
pointed out that it is natural that God would swear by himself, even though this is “a thing impossible for anyone else.”
Similar to the events described in the Book of Daniel
, the Book of Revelation
includes a description of an angel who swears by God to the truth of the end-time events being revealed to John
.
The sentiment behind this commandment is expressed in the Lord's Prayer
, which begins, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." According to Pope Benedict XVI
, when God revealed his name to Moses he established a relationship with mankind; Benedict stated that the Incarnation was the culmination of a process that "had begun with the giving of the divine name." Benedict elaborated that this means the divine name could be misused and that Jesus' inclusion of "hallowed be thy name" is a plea for the sanctification of God's name, to "protect the wonderful mystery of his accessibility to us, and constantly assert his true identity as opposed to our distortion of it."
Taking an oath or swearing is to take God as witness to what one affirms. It is to invoke the divine truthfulness as a pledge of one’s own truthfulness.
For the same reason, the Catholic Catechism teaches that it is a duty to reject false oaths that others might try to impose; an oath may be made false because it attests to a lie, because an illegitimate authority is requiring it, or because the purpose of the oath is contrary to God’s law or human dignity.
described five categories of actions that constitute taking God’s name in vain: 1) hypocrisy – making a profession of God’s name, but not living up to that profession; 2) covenant breaking – if one makes promises to God yet does not carry out the promised actions; 3) rash swearing; 4) false swearing; and 5) using the name of God lightly and carelessly, for charms or spells, jest or sport. He pointed out that though a person may hold himself guiltless in one of these matters, the commandment specifically states that God will not.
The Lutheran Witness, a doctrinal document representing the Lutheran faith, supports the view that oaths should not generally be taken at all, except “for the glory of God and the welfare of our neighbor.” Specifically, it states that proper use of God’s name includes administration of oaths in court, and in swearing-in a spiritual or political leader to their respective offices, which include responsibilities toward God and fellow human beings.
In his Institutes of the Christian Religion
, John Calvin
sets the stage for discussing this commandment by noting that an oath is calling God to witness that what we say is true, and that an appropriate oath is a kind of worship of God in that it implies a profession of faith. When human testimony fails, people appeal to God as witness, as the only one able to bring hidden things to light and know what is in the heart. False swearing robs God of his truth (to the observer), and therefore it is a serious matter. With regard to the casual use of God’s name, Calvin summarized, “remember that an oath is not appointed or allowed for passion or pleasure, but for necessity.” He wrote that the frequency of casual use of the name of God has dulled the public conscience but that the commandment, with its penalty, still stands.
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
.
It is a prohibition of blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
, specifically, the misuse or "taking in vain" of the name
Names of God
Names of God, or Holy Names, describe a form of addressing God present in liturgy or prayer of various world religions. Prayer involving the Holy Name or the Name of God has become established as common spiritual practice in both Western and Eastern spiritual practices...
of the God of Israel.
Exodus 20:7 reads:
- "Thou shalt not take the name of the thy GodElohimElohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
in vain; for the will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." (KJV).
Based on this commandment, Second Temple Judaism
Second Temple Judaism
Second Temple Judaism refers to the religion of Judaism during the Second Temple period, between the construction of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 515 BCE, and its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE This period witnessed major historical upheavals and significant religious changes that...
by the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period
The Hellenistic period or Hellenistic era describes the time which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was so named by the historian J. G. Droysen. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia...
developed a taboo of pronouncing the name of God at all, resulting in the replacement of the Tetragrammaton
Tetragrammaton
The term Tetragrammaton refers to the name of the God of Israel YHWH used in the Hebrew Bible.-Hebrew Bible:...
by "Adonai" (literally "my lords" -- see Adonai) in pronunciation.
In the Hebrew Bible itself, the commandment is directed against abuse of the name of God, not against any use; there are numerous examples in the Hebrew Bible and a few in the New Testament where God’s name is called upon in oaths to tell the truth or to support the truth of the statement being sworn to, and the books of Daniel
Daniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
and Revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
include instances where an angel sent by God invokes the name of God to support the truth of apocalyptic revelations. God himself is presented as swearing by his own name (“As surely as I live …”) to guarantee the certainty of various events foretold through the prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
s.
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew is translated as "thou shalt not take in vain". The word here translated as "in vain" is shav' "emptiness, vanity; emptiness of speech, lying", while "take" is nasa' "to lift, carry, bear, take, take away" (appearing in the second person as ). The expression "to take in vain" is also translated less literally as "to misuse" or variants.Some have interpreted the commandment to be against perjury, since invoking God’s name in an oath
Oath
An oath 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...
was considered a guarantee of the truth of a statement or promise.
Other scholars believe the original intent was to prohibit using the name in the magical practice of conjuration
Conjuration
Conjuration is used in many video games, mainly RPGs, where it is usually referred to as summoning.* A notable example is the Final Fantasy franchise which incorporates summoning of monsters to fight alongside the characters....
.
Old Testament passages also refer to God’s name being profaned by hypocritical behavior of people and false representation of God’s words or character.
Many scholars also believe the commandment applies to the casual use of God’s name in interjections and curses (blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
).
The object of the command "thou shalt not take in vain" is "this-same name of YHWH, thy elohim
Elohim
Elohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
", making explicit that the commandment is against the misuse of the proper name Yahweh specifically.
In the Hebrew Bible, as well as in the Ancient Near East
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...
and throughout classical antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
more generally, an oath
Oath
An oath 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...
is a conditional self-curse invoking deities that are asked to inflict punishment on the oath-breaker.
There are numerous examples in the Book of Samuel of people strengthening their statements or promises with the phrase, “As surely as Yahweh lives …” and such statements are referred to in Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Jeremiah Hebrew：יִרְמְיָה , Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yahweh exalts", or called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the main prophets of the Hebrew Bible...
as well. The value of invoking punishment from God was based on the belief that God cannot be deceived or evaded. For example, a narrative in the Book of Numbers describes how such an oath is to be administered by a priest to a woman suspected of adultery, with the expectation that the accompanying curse will have no effect on an innocent person.
Such oaths may have been used in civil claims, regarding supposed theft, for example, and the commandment is repeated in the context of honest dealings between people in Leviticus 19:12. At one point of the account of the dedication of the Temple of Solomon, Solomon prays to Yahweh, asking him to hear and act upon curses uttered in a dispute that are then brought before his altar, to distinguish between the person in the right and the one in the wrong.
The prophet Isaiah
Isaiah
Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
rebuked Israel as the Babylonian Captivity
Babylonian captivity
The Babylonian captivity was the period in Jewish history during which the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon—conventionally 587–538 BCE....
drew near, pointing out that they bore the name of God, and swore by him, but their swearing was hypocritical since they had forsaken the exclusive worship of Yahweh for the worship of idols. The Israelites had been told in Leviticus that sacrificing their children to idols and then coming to worship God caused God’s name to be profaned, thus breaking the commandment. According to the Book of Jeremiah
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
, Yahweh told him to look around Jerusalem, asserting that he would not be able to find an honest man – “Even when they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ they are sure to be swearing falsely.” Jeremiah refers to a situation in which Israelites repented and took oaths in God’s name – only to renege by reclaiming as slaves persons they had freed as part of their repentance. This hypocritical act was also considered profaning God’s name. In Jeremiah 12, an opportunity is also described for Israel’s neighbors to avoid destruction and prosper if they stop swearing by their idol and swear only by the name of Yahweh.
In Judaism
To avoid coming under guilt by accidentally misusing God’s name, Jewish scholars do not write or pronounce the proper name in most circumstances, but use substitutes such as “Adonai (the Lord),” or “HaShem (the Name).” In English translations of the Bible, the name Adonai is often translated “Lord,” while the proper name Yahweh represented by the tetragrammatonTetragrammaton
The term Tetragrammaton refers to the name of the God of Israel YHWH used in the Hebrew Bible.-Hebrew Bible:...
is often indicated by the use of capital and small capital letters, .
Joseph Telushkin
Joseph Telushkin
Joseph Telushkin is an American rabbi, lecturer, and author.-Biography:Telushkin attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush, was ordained at Yeshiva University, and studied Jewish history at Columbia University....
, a Modern Orthodox rabbi, wrote that the commandment is much more than a prohibition against casual interjections using God’s name. He pointed out that the more literal translation of Lo tissa is “you shall not carry” rather than “you shall not take”, and that understanding this helps one understand why the commandment ranks with such as “You shall not murder
You shall not murder
You shall not murder or You shall not kill, KJV Thou shalt not kill , is a moral imperative included as one of the Ten Commandments in the Torah, specificallyExodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17....
” and “You shall not commit adultery
You shall not commit adultery
"You shall not commit adultery" is one of the Ten Commandments. Adultery is sexual relations in which at least one participant is married to someone else. According to the Genesis narrative, marriage is a union established by God himself...
”.
One of the first commandments listed by Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
in the Mishneh Torah
Mishneh Torah
The Mishneh Torah subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka is a code of Jewish religious law authored by Maimonides , one of history's foremost rabbis...
is the responsibility to sanctify God’s name. Maimonides thought the commandment should be taken as generally as possible, and therefore he considered it forbidden to mention God’s name unnecessarily at any time. Jewish scholars referred to this as "motzi shem shamayim lavatalah", “uttering the Name of Heaven uselessly.” To avoid guilt associated with accidentally breaking the commandment, Jewish scholars applied the prohibition to all seven biblical titles of God in addition to the proper name, and established the safeguard of circumlocution when referring to the Name of God. In writing names of God, a common practice includes substituting letters or syllables so that the written word is not exactly the name, or writing the name in an abbreviated manner. Orthodox Jews will not even pronounce a name of God unless it is said in prayer or religious study. The Sacred Name (Tetragrammaton
Tetragrammaton
The term Tetragrammaton refers to the name of the God of Israel YHWH used in the Hebrew Bible.-Hebrew Bible:...
), is never pronounced by these Jews but always read as “Adonai (the Lord),” “HaShem (the Name),” or sometimes “AdoShem”.
The Kaddish
Kaddish
Kaddish is a prayer found in the Jewish prayer service. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy different versions of the Kaddish are used functionally as separators between sections of the service...
is an important prayer in a Jewish prayer service whose central theme is the magnification and sanctification of God’s name. Along with the Shema and Amidah
Amidah
The Amidah , also called the Shmoneh Esreh , is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy. This prayer, among others, is found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book...
, it is one of the most important and central prayers of Jewish liturgy.
In the New Testament
In his Sermon on the MountSermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew...
, Jesus taught that a person’s word should be reliable and one should not swear by God or his creation. In his letter, the Apostle James
Epistle of James
The Epistle of James, usually referred to simply as James, is a book in the New Testament. The author identifies himself as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ", with "the earliest extant manuscripts of James usually dated to mid-to-late third century."There are four views...
reiterates the instruction to just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and keep your word, "so that you may not fall into condemnation."
According to David Cook, appeals to authorities to validate the truth of a promise had expanded in Jesus’ day, which was not in line with the original commandment. Jesus is quoted as warning that they were blind and foolish who gave credibility to such arguments.
According to the Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
, Jesus made appeals to the power of the name of God and also claimed the name of God as his own, which constituted blasphemy if it were not true. The Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
relates an incident where a group attempts to stone Jesus after he speaks God's name. Jesus says that he is the Messiah, and makes parallels between himself and the “Son of Man” referred to by the prophet Daniel
Daniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
, which evokes an emphatic response that he has blasphemed (broken the commandment) and deserves death.
The Apostle Paul occasionally invokes God’s name in his letters, calling God as witness to the purity of his motives and honesty of his dealings with the churches to whom he ministered.
The author of Hebrews reviewed God’s promise to Abraham as assurance that outstanding promises will yet be fulfilled. “Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute.” In the case of the promise of God to Abraham, God swore by his own name to guarantee the promise, since there was nothing greater for him to swear by. Philo
Philo
Philo , known also as Philo of Alexandria , Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew, was a Hellenistic Jewish Biblical philosopher born in Alexandria....
pointed out that it is natural that God would swear by himself, even though this is “a thing impossible for anyone else.”
Similar to the events described in the Book of Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...
, the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
includes a description of an angel who swears by God to the truth of the end-time events being revealed to John
John of Patmos
John of Patmos is the name given, in the Book of Revelation, as the author of the apocalyptic text that is traditionally cannonized in the New Testament...
.
In the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church teaches that the Lord’s name is holy and should be introduced into one’s speech only to bless, praise or glorify that name. The name should be used respectfully, with an awareness of the presence of God. It must not be abused by careless speech, false oaths, or words of hatred, reproach or defiance toward God, or used in magic. Since Jesus Christ is believed to be the Messiah, and “the image of the invisible God,” this commandment is applied to the name of Jesus Christ as well.The sentiment behind this commandment is expressed in the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
, which begins, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." According to Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
, when God revealed his name to Moses he established a relationship with mankind; Benedict stated that the Incarnation was the culmination of a process that "had begun with the giving of the divine name." Benedict elaborated that this means the divine name could be misused and that Jesus' inclusion of "hallowed be thy name" is a plea for the sanctification of God's name, to "protect the wonderful mystery of his accessibility to us, and constantly assert his true identity as opposed to our distortion of it."
Taking an oath or swearing is to take God as witness to what one affirms. It is to invoke the divine truthfulness as a pledge of one’s own truthfulness.
For the same reason, the Catholic Catechism teaches that it is a duty to reject false oaths that others might try to impose; an oath may be made false because it attests to a lie, because an illegitimate authority is requiring it, or because the purpose of the oath is contrary to God’s law or human dignity.
Reformation and Post-Reformation views
Matthew HenryMatthew Henry
Matthew Henry was an English commentator on the Bible and Presbyterian minister.-Life:He was born at Broad Oak, a farmhouse on the borders of Flintshire and Shropshire. His father, Philip Henry, had just been ejected under the Act of Uniformity 1662...
described five categories of actions that constitute taking God’s name in vain: 1) hypocrisy – making a profession of God’s name, but not living up to that profession; 2) covenant breaking – if one makes promises to God yet does not carry out the promised actions; 3) rash swearing; 4) false swearing; and 5) using the name of God lightly and carelessly, for charms or spells, jest or sport. He pointed out that though a person may hold himself guiltless in one of these matters, the commandment specifically states that God will not.
The Lutheran Witness, a doctrinal document representing the Lutheran faith, supports the view that oaths should not generally be taken at all, except “for the glory of God and the welfare of our neighbor.” Specifically, it states that proper use of God’s name includes administration of oaths in court, and in swearing-in a spiritual or political leader to their respective offices, which include responsibilities toward God and fellow human beings.
In his Institutes of the Christian Religion
Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvin's seminal work on Protestant systematic theology...
, John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
sets the stage for discussing this commandment by noting that an oath is calling God to witness that what we say is true, and that an appropriate oath is a kind of worship of God in that it implies a profession of faith. When human testimony fails, people appeal to God as witness, as the only one able to bring hidden things to light and know what is in the heart. False swearing robs God of his truth (to the observer), and therefore it is a serious matter. With regard to the casual use of God’s name, Calvin summarized, “remember that an oath is not appointed or allowed for passion or pleasure, but for necessity.” He wrote that the frequency of casual use of the name of God has dulled the public conscience but that the commandment, with its penalty, still stands.
External links
- The Third Commandment in Masoretic Hebrew, Septuagint Greek and several English versions
- Aseret Hadiberot on the commandment not to take (or carry) the name of God in vain (emptiness).