ContradictionsReading order 60Bible context 7 min read
Is it OK to swear?
Earlier commands authorize truthful oaths in God's name, while Jesus and James tell their hearers not to swear at all.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Major
- A major event or claim with wider implications.
Commands permitting truthful religious oaths differ clearly from the later prohibition of swearing any oath.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
People must swear by God and fulfill their oaths
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
Deuteronomy 6:13
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Deuteronomy 6
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.
Deuteronomy 10:20
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Deuteronomy 10