Oath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
|
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
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]
Historical development as a legal concept
Making vows and
taking oaths became a symbolic concept in law practice that developed over time
in different cultures.
Jewish tradition 13th century BCE
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 pre-eminent biblical commentator, as
serving as an oath, citing the Talmud Shavous 36a for this
ruling.[1]
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.
The
foundational text for oath making is in the "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”
(Numbers 30:3). According to the Rabbis, a neder
(usually translated as “vow”) refers to the object, a shvua (usually translated
as “oath”) to the person. The passage (Bamidbar 30:2-17) distinguishes between
a neder and a shvua, an important distinction between the two in halacha: a neder changes the status of some
external thing, while a shvua initiates an internal change in the one who
swears the oath.
Roman tradition c. 509 BCE
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.In Chapter Two: The 'Antecedents' of Roman Religion. Source: [1] (accessed: June 24, 2012)
Greek tradition c.400 BCE
Walter Burkert has shown that since Lycurgus of Athens
(d. 324 BCE), 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.Burkert, Greek
Religion, trans. Raffan, Harvard University Press (1985), 250ff.
Christian tradition first century A.D.
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"Faith and Practice
of Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (1988) p. 19
suggesting that truthfulness in legal contexts is somehow more important than
truthfulness in non-legal contexts and that truthfulness in those other
contexts is therefore somehow less important.
Not all Christians interpret 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 President Franklin Pierce has
chosen to affirm rather than swear at his inauguration.
In Islamic tradition c.7th century
Islamic
theology takes the fulfillment of oaths extremely 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).
Germanic tradition c.8th century
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).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)
In general 20th century 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 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 [2], 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.
In English popular custom
Common examples
of oaths include:
- I swear on
my mother's life
- I swear on
my grandmothers grave
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
- Anti-Modernist oath
- Bhishma
- Ironclad oath
- Oaths in Freemasonry
- Oath More Judaico
(Jewish)
- Oaths of Strasbourg
- Scout Oath
- Tennis Court Oath
- Omertà
Fictional
Other meanings
The word
"oath" is often used to mean any angry expression which includes
religious or other strong language used as an expletive.
The entire wiki article can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath
No comments:
Post a Comment