443: Talmudic Matthew — Oaths

Summary

The BEMA Podcast Episode 443: Talmudic Matthew — Oaths

Release Date: March 27, 2025
Host/Author: BEMA Discipleship
Hosts: Brent Billings and El Grower Fricks

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Introduction

In Episode 443 of The BEMA Podcast, hosted by Brent Billings and El Grower Fricks, the discussion delves into Jesus's teachings on oaths as presented in the Sermon on the Mount, specifically focusing on Matthew 5:33-37. The hosts aim to unpack the historical and cultural contexts surrounding oaths in Jewish and Greco-Roman societies, contrasting them with Jesus's radical instructions to His followers.

Overview of Matthew 5:33-37

Brent initiates the discussion by reading Matthew 5:33-37:

"You have heard that it was said to the people of old, 'Do not swear falsely, but fulfill your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, because it is the throne of God, or by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head because you are not able to make one hair white or black. But let your statement be yes, yes; no, no. And anything beyond these is from the evil one." (00:27)

Rabbinic Jewish Context on Oaths

El Grower Fricks emphasizes the importance of understanding Jesus's teachings within the rabbinic Jewish context:

"We've been looking through the Sermon on the Mount, looking at these teachings of Jesus and popping them open to examine the rabbinic conversation, which was Jesus's milieu through the Talmud, and seeing what differences and what similarities we can find in the teachings of Jesus." (01:24)

The hosts explore the prevalent use of oaths in Jewish tradition, as evidenced by numerous examples in the Talmud and other rabbinic literature. They note that oaths were commonly tied to various entities such as heaven, earth, Jerusalem, and personal attributes like one's head, reflecting a deep intertwining of oaths with everyday life and religious practice.

Greco-Roman Oaths: Practices and Significance

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the Greco-Roman practices of oath-making. El explains the typical components of a Hellenistic oath:

1. Animal Sacrifice or Libation: The process often began with the sacrifice of an animal or the pouring out of a libation.
2. Invocation of a God: The oath-taker would call upon a specific deity, serving as a witness and protector of the oath.
3. Inclusion of Curses: The oath concluded with curses detailing the consequences of breaking the oath, thereby ensuring its solemnity.

Brent draws parallels with ancient texts, citing a passage from Homer's Iliad to illustrate the gravity and ritualistic nature of oaths:

"He spoke and cut the lamb's throats with the pitiless bronze... Then they drew wine from the bowl into the cups, poured it out and made prayer to the gods..." (14:47)

Jesus's Radical Teaching Against Oaths

The crux of the episode centers on Jesus's directive to forgo oath-taking altogether. El contemplates why Jesus would present such a stark departure from established norms:

"Jesus is saying, don't even get into the place where you need to resolve things via oath in the first place. Don't let your relationship degrade with another person enough through failures of integrity..." (09:00)

They argue that Jesus's instruction is not merely a prohibition but a call to cultivate a lifestyle of unwavering integrity. By eliminating the need for oaths, individuals are encouraged to embody trustworthiness without the crutch of binding promises.

Scriptural References: Isaiah 66:1-4

To contextualize Jesus's words, the hosts reference Isaiah 66:1-4, noting similarities in language and themes:

"Thus says Adonai, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool for my feet... But I look to this one, to the humble and the contrite of spirit..." (19:05)

They suggest that Jesus may be drawing from Isaiah to subtly critique Greco-Roman oath practices, aligning His message with Jewish prophetic traditions while addressing Hellenistic influences.

Political and Cultural Implications

Brent and El explore the political undertones of Jesus's teaching, particularly in relation to loyalty oaths to the Roman Emperor. They discuss how such oaths were not only religious but also political statements of allegiance, often demanding worship of the emperor as a divine figure.

El posits that Jesus's advice to refrain from oaths could serve as a form of nonviolent resistance, reinforcing loyalty to God over imperial powers:

"Jesus might be being political and engaged in some nonviolent resistance in a way that we just miss because we aren't thinking about the culture and the history." (24:37)

Modern-Day Applications and Reflections

Transitioning to contemporary relevance, the hosts reflect on how oath-taking manifests in today's society. Brent brings up examples such as the implicit oaths in digital communication, where expectations of prompt responses can create undue pressure and assumptions.

El elaborates on the concept of "hemming ourselves in" through modern equivalents of oaths, such as making grand declarations about personal capabilities or future predictions that bind or limit personal growth and integrity:

"We're hemming ourselves in. When we say stuff like that, we're tying ourselves to a future negatively because we have no idea what God is calling us to..." (28:23)

They advocate for embracing Jesus's call to let "yes" and "no" stand on their own, fostering a culture of honesty and reliability without the need for additional guarantees or vows.

Key Insights and Takeaways

1. Integrity Over Oaths: Jesus's teaching emphasizes living with inherent honesty and integrity, rendering oaths unnecessary.
2. Cultural Critique: The directive serves as a subtle critique of both Jewish and Greco-Roman oath practices, promoting a shift towards trustworthiness without external bindings.
3. Political Resistance: By discouraging oaths tied to imperial allegiance, Jesus advocates for spiritual loyalty over political subservience.
4. Modern Parallels: Contemporary practices often mirror ancient oath-making in subtle ways, creating pressures and constraints that hinder genuine integrity.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Brent Billings (00:27): "Today I'm with El Grover Fricks to investigate Jesus's teaching on oaths."

• El Grower Fricks (01:58): "We love to keep it literal, I think. I mean, there's a lot of context we're going to get into..."

• Brent Billings (09:00): "Jesus is saying, don't even get into the place where you need to resolve things via oath in the first place."

• El Grower Fricks (19:05): "This first verse, bing, bang, bong, we have each element. Only difference is we have house instead of city."

• Brent Billings (35:29): "I often think about Ephesians 4 and how forceful Paul is when he says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth..."

Conclusion

Episode 443 of The BEMA Podcast offers a profound exploration of Jesus's teachings on oaths, situating them within their rich historical and cultural contexts. By dissecting the interplay between Jewish rabbinic traditions and Greco-Roman practices, Brent and El provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of why Jesus's instruction to forgo oaths was both radical and revolutionary. The discussion not only sheds light on ancient practices but also invites listeners to reflect on their own word-keeping and the implicit oaths present in modern life.

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Transcript Reference

For reference and further context, the discussion in this summary draws from the podcast transcript timestamps ranging from 00:00 to 38:52.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Brent Billings]

Foreign. This is the Bama podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co host, Brent Billings. Today I'm with El Grower Fricks to fulfill the vow we made to the Lord. I swear by heaven that we shall investigate this passage. I swear on this land that we shall examine these words. And I swear by Jerusalem that we shall share our resources. I swear on my head.

[El Grower Fricks]

No, no, no. Brent.

[Brent Billings]

Did I read the wrong one?

[El Grower Fricks]

Please, now.

[Brent Billings]

Okay, let me try it again. Today I'm with El Grover Fricks to investigate Jesus's teaching on oaths.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yes. Yes. There we go. We did it. That's a relief, especially because anything beyond this is from the evil one.

[Brent Billings]

Oh, I think I misunderstood this passage.

[El Grower Fricks]

Kind of a. Kind of a bummer. Okay, well, should have read more closely. Set us all a right. Reading verses 33 through 37 for us.

[Brent Billings]

From Matthew 5 in the lab again, you have heard that it was said to the people of old, do not swear falsely, but fulfill your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, because it is the throne of God, or by the earth because it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king. And do not swear by your head because you are not able to make one hair, white or black. But let your statement be yes, yes, no, no. And anything beyond these is from the evil one.

[El Grower Fricks]

Amazing. Thank you. We've been looking through the Sermon on the Mount, looking at these teachings of Jesus and popping them open to examine the rabbinic conversation, which was Jesus's milieu through the Talmud, and seeing what differences and what similarities we can find in the teachings of Jesus. So we're going to continue to do that today, specifically on this teaching on oaths, which has some surprises in it.

[Brent Billings]

I think, among them, the fact that yes is repeated and no is repeated.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yes, yes.

[Brent Billings]

And I just confirmed it. It's just in the Greek manuscript. So I've never read a translation that. I mean, maybe I have, but I don't remember reading a translation where it repeats it. So that's fun to know.

[El Grower Fricks]

We love to keep it literal, I think. I mean, there's a lot of context we're going to get into, but I do think that it's worth noting that sometimes we want to hunker down and be like, we believe in the Bible and we actually follow the Bible, which I do believe. But there's also this. Like, do we. Especially when we carry around that chip on our shoulder, are there things which we, you know, conveniently ignore if you're in the public school system. We have pledges of allegiance. We make oaths in court. Our wedding ceremonies include oaths, which I challenge people to try to find a biblical example of outside of Sinai, which still doesn't use the word oath in it. But the way there's folks in the military, there's folks in civic office, and I'm not saying that none of us can ever testify in court or whatever, or else we've broken the law of Jesus, but I think it's a good posture of humility before we get into all the context, if we're tend to be a person who says, I believe in doing what the Bible says. It's black and white. It's not complicated to take a little. A little dose here, practice some expansiveness as we lean in toward this text and start learning. And also shout out to Quakers and Mennonites and other people who historically have followed this rule literally at great personal cost.

[Brent Billings]

Yeah, I mean, and on a practical side, for me, it's just a cumbersome intro. If I have to do all of these hoes.

[El Grower Fricks]

I mean, you did just flippantly break the law of our Lord, he died. That you might live. And this is what you do, you know, this is the content that you write.

[Brent Billings]

Just trying to make it a little more engaging. Hopefully. Hopefully the listeners said, no, no, before you got to it.

[El Grower Fricks]

Feel free to tell that to the Lord on Judgment Day. Oh, boy. Okay, so what was the rabbinic conversation around oaths? Well, there are a bajillion examples all through Talmud and other rabbinic literature of oaths showing up. And nobody is particularly upset by them. They seem to be fine. There's all different kinds and all different formulas. So much so that one academic said for Jewish thought, oaths, in spite of their diversity, nevertheless formed such a unified whole that no Jewish hearer would have understood Jesus's admonition. Okay, here are some common oath formulas that people utilized by omnipotence, by the Temple, by the temple service, by the altar, by the covenant, by the Torah, by Moses, by life. And then it would be followed up by, I will not depart from here until I have redeemed him from captivity. Or whatever kind of oath you're making follows one of those things.

[Brent Billings]

Is there something to Jesus's particular list of by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem, by your head?

[El Grower Fricks]

We'll see later, Brent. All right, what Marty used to say, you're close to the kingdom, quoting ray, you're like 25 minutes ahead of me. Don't worry about it. So do they have any cautions about the dangers of oaths? Yes, there's a few, including around the Book of Judges, when Jephthah's daughter is murdered because of his dumb oath. Recall, we did an episode on that. But Tanchuma also says this. Let not someone from Yisra'el be reckless with vows, nor with laughter. That part's a bummer. Nor to deceive another by an oath saying that it is not an oath. In the king's mountain, there were 2,000 cities, and they were all destroyed because of a truthful oath, which was unnecessary.

[Brent Billings]

What about reckless with oaths for the sake of laughter? I mean, I need a loophole at this point.

[El Grower Fricks]

Do you want to destroy 2000 cities? Which ones? Where's the king's mountains? Okay, so if that's the Talmudic literature, that's not super enlightening, right? It's like, okay, Jesus is going hard against the grain. Why? What's going on? And additionally, what stands out as odd or unexpected about this commandment from a biblical perspective? Anything pop to mind? Are there oaths made in the Tanakh? I mean, surely, surely, indeed, there are. It's common. In fact, one might say we have different kinds. We have the word promise versus the word oath. Just like we have different kinds of curses, by the way. But that's a different episode. But in general, they're still scattered around everywhere. So let's look at a list just confined to the Book of Bereshit, the book of Genesis.

[Brent Billings]

I'm questioning everything, because you made a comment earlier, maybe offhandedly, about how I think it was the marriage oath is not. It's not actually there the way we think it is. So I'm like, I don't even know anything anymore.

[El Grower Fricks]

Well, think about biblical marriages. That's also a different episode. But think about Rivka and Yitzhak.

[Brent Billings]

Yeah, I mean, do you want to come with me? Sure. I guess that's not an oath. I don't know.

[El Grower Fricks]

Okay, well, let's not horrify our audience too much and throw everybody else off into the spinning whirlpool, which I guess is my fault, so I. I will own that. But looking at Genesis here, just where is there. Where do we find oaths if not in Rachel and Yaakov and Yitzchak and Livcha, et cetera? Uh, in Genesis 21, it says that Avimelech makes Avraham take an oath. And then in chapter 24, Avraham makes Eliezer swear an oath to maybe learned from him. Genesis 25, ESAV makes an oath when he sells his birthright to yaakov. In Genesis 25, Avimelech makes Yitzhak swear when they're settling their will dispute. In Genesis 31, Lavan initiates an oath when he's settling the dispute with Yaakov. And then in Genesis 47, Yosef is made to swear to his dying father that he will take his bones back. Kind of implies a dispute there, as if Yosef might just stay in Egypt forever. Right. We've got that push and pull between Pharaoh and that's going on in the story. And so there's a pattern there. Does anything stick out about it to you?

[Brent Billings]

I mean, the patriarchs are pretty into it. I was expecting some oaths from the Lord to appear and did not.

[El Grower Fricks]

In fact, in Genesis 50, Yosef is describing God promising the land to Avraham and he uses the word for oath. But God never actually uses that word whenever he's the one talking to the patriarchs.

[Brent Billings]

Interesting.

[El Grower Fricks]

Indeed. Indeed. So what I note about this pattern is all of these moments in these stories are jammed up against sections where there are disputes, right? We have Avimelech and Avraham. Avimelech is mad at Avraham because he's been carrying out his Bonnie and Clyde thing with Sarah and not telling him who he is. And then God curses the whole house and then Avimelech like finds out and is mad. Right? ESAV is grappling with Yaakov. There's this dispute over the wells. Lavan and Yaakov are definitely going at it over a long period of time. So it's almost like Jesus is saying, don't even get into the place where you need to resolve things via oath in the first place. Like, don't let your relationship degrade with another person enough through failures of integrity that they need an extra level of commitment to say that you are going to hold to the things that you are saying. Don't be in a dispute with the father of the king. Don't battle with your siblings. Don't get into disputes over land. Don't get in decades long fights with your father in law.

[Brent Billings]

This is not exactly the same kind of dispute, but this somehow, like, I don't even understand how Darius has come up with this. And now Torren started to do it sometimes too, where we'll be in an argument about something and I'll be like. He'll be like, you know, two plus two equals five. I was like, nobody. It's actually four. He's like, no, dad, it's five. I was like, darius, it's four. Trust me. I've been doing this math thing for a long time. It's four. He's like, no, Dad, I promise, it's five. It's like, what extra layer? Where did you even get that? Yeah, so is that the same kind of, like, idea? I think obviously the stakes are very different than what we're maybe talking about with some of these stories, but.

[El Grower Fricks]

Right. I think that's the idea. Like, you're not taking him at his word. And so he's adding an extra layer of gravitas to his words to be like, I am serious.

[Brent Billings]

Which, you know, I mean that swear by heaven, like, yeah, that seems weighty.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yeah. Yeah, it sure does. I really want to make a joke about, like, heaven being in the sky. And so it's not actually weighty, but I'll go. I'll go right on past that opportunity.

[Brent Billings]

Thin air up there.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yeah. Okay. So maybe, maybe that's what Jesus is pointing to biblically, but I still think that this would have rankled the original listeners if that's all there is, if that's the. Their full cultural context is this is fully normative to do. And Jesus says, well, don't they go back and look at their Torah and are like, well, maybe, you know, I think there's another piece here. And when we've run out of biblical perspective and we've run out of rabbinic perspective, the third perspective always has got to be the Greco Roman cultural context checks out. Indeed. Jesus's worlds is always a confluence of this Hellenistic culture in the 1st century, Jewish culture slamming into each other and reacting against one another constantly. Right. So oaths are definitely a thing in the Greco Roman world. They show up absolutely everywhere and occur with great frequency. So here are the steps for a Hellenistic oath. If you want to do something quote unquote of the evil one.

[Brent Billings]

I mean, I tried it. It didn't work very well.

[El Grower Fricks]

Well, you missed some steps, so hopefully you're still. Okay. Step number one, you gotta kill an animal and. Or pour out a libation.

[Brent Billings]

Okay.

[El Grower Fricks]

Hide your pets.

[Brent Billings]

I mean, I would go with the libation, I guess.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yeah. Okay. Step two, you've gotta claim a God as witness and as protector of the oath, which we'll return to in just a sec. And then step three, the oath is stamped with finality by the inclusion of curses, so that God is witness and protector in the second place is protecting that curse outcome, making sure that it's actually happening.

[Brent Billings]

Like, here's what you got to do and if you don't, here's what's going to happen.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yes.

[Brent Billings]

Spelling out the consequences ahead of time.

[El Grower Fricks]

Right. And may Apollo make it so that's the idea. So I actually have some.

[Brent Billings]

That's your God of choice?

[El Grower Fricks]

I don't know. Well, well, I've been reading some Iliad which I'm going to share today. So you know, he's in the pantheon. So iliad is from 8th century BC, Iron Age, and so it's before the time of Jesus, but it's going to be even more relevant in a hot sec. So anyway, easy accessible thing to go and check. Here's a quote from the Iliad and we'll see if those steps pop up. He spoke and cut the lamb's throats with the pitiless bronze and laid them on the ground, gasping and failing of breath, breath. For the bronze had robbed them of their strength. Then they drew wine from the bowl into the cups, poured it out and made prayer to the gods who are forever. And thus would one of the Achaians and the Trojans say, zeus most glorious, most great, and you other immortal gods, whichever army of the two will be first to work harm in defiance of the oaths, may their brains be poured out on the ground, just as this wine is theirs and their children's and their wives will be made to serve others. So we've got slaying of a random animal, right? Not appropriate Torah slaughter practices. Btdevs. And then we have the libation. They pour out wine on the ground and then they invoke a God specifically and they ask Zeus to protect the oath and then the inclusion of a curse there. May their brains be poured out on the ground like this wine. So he's the one who has to make sure that that happens.

[Brent Billings]

So why would it not always be Zeus? Are they, are they making judgments and saying like, well, this is important to me, but I don't think Zeus is going to care about this. And so I'm going to go with somebody who has a little bit more time.

[El Grower Fricks]

Well, very monotheistic question of you, Brent. Like just go to the big dogs. You've got household gods, right? You've got like a relationship with these different deities which you invoke for different things, whether it's a household manner. And then you might Hestia or Hera, right. If it's about your grain, then you might invoke one. Agricultural deities, Right. So it depends on your issue. But of course, in the Iliad it's like big armies fighting, and so you're bringing in the biggest, your biggest guns. In later years, there's more. Identifying yourself with the killed thing right there. It says your brains are like the. Or like the wine that gets poured out, but that keeps going. So sometimes they like disembowel an animal and hold the intestines or immerse their hands in its blood. And the idea is, this will be me. If I break this oath, this is what will happen to me.

[Brent Billings]

Like an evolution of the blood path covenant that we talk about with Abraham.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yeah, yeah, but with different animals and with spoken words about that, including the actual curse. One more section here it says, and if anything in this oath be false, this is a different oath about Perseus. If you know the story of the Iliad or you've seen the movie Troy or anything, if anything in this oath be false, may the gods give me many woes. All those that are used to give to anyone who sins against them. In his swearing, he spoke. And he cut the boar's throat with the pitiless bronze. Bronze is always pitiless, I guess.

[Brent Billings]

Yeah, I was wondering about that.

[El Grower Fricks]

And the body of the boar was whirled and flung into the great gulf of the sea to be food for the fishes. That one also invokes Zeus. And you have to cut off the hair of the boar first. And it's a whole thing. So is there a passage in scripture that Jesus could have had in mind when he may have been addressing this more Greco Roman pattern of oath making? And if so, what would our tip off be? Because that first you have heard it said, you will not swear falsely, but pay your oaths to the Lord. That's more aligned with Leviticus 19, which says, you will not swear falsely by my name so as to profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. But as you keyed into so presciently earlier, Brent Billings, there's another reference in these verses that we can miss as just kind of hyperbole if we don't pay attention. Jesus makes this unnecessary list. He could have just said, don't do oaths anymore, and then moved on. But he makes this list of possibilities which again are irrelevant since he said don't do it. And I'm going to zoom in specifically on the either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footrest of God, or by Yerushalayim, for it is the city of the great King. Pretty random. Feels like he could have even just said, either by heaven or by earth or by Jerusalem, because they're not ours. Right. And we know that already. But he goes beyond that, and he has these poetic reasons for these irrelevant oath examples. Throne of God, footrest of God, city of the king. So is there somewhere in scripture that he's referencing for his Jewish listeners to catch? And I'm going to propose that that is Isaiah 66. So if you could read for us Isaiah 66, verses 1 through 4, that would be lovely, Brent.

[Brent Billings]

Thus says Adonai, heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool for my feet. Where is this house that you would build for me? And where is this resting place for me? My hand has made all these things, and all these came to be, declares Adonai. But I look to this one, to the humble and the contrite of spirits, and the one frightened at my word. The one who slaughters a bull, strikes a man. The one who slaughters a lamb for sacrifice, breaks the neck of a dog. The one who offers an offering, the blood of swine. The one who offers frankincense, blesses an idol. Indeed, they themselves have chosen their ways, and their soul delights in their abhorrence. Indeed, I myself will choose their ill treatment, and I will bring them objects of their dread. Because I called and no one answered. I spoke and they did not listen, but they did the evil in my eyes, and they chose that in which I do not delight.

[El Grower Fricks]

Okay, that first verse, bing, bang, bong, we have each element. Only difference is we have house instead of city. But they're both thought to be the dwelling place of God. And we're actually going to come back to that in a hot sec. Okay, so we have heaven is God's throne, earth is God's footstool, and then house. So if Jesus is referencing this passage, why would that be by nearly exactly quoting it? Right. I think the offerings described in verse three way more closely match the Greco Roman oath formula than a typical Levitical sacrifice. Right. We have the slaughtering of animals which are not kosher. Right. We have a dog. Nowhere in Dora is that okay. You have swine, also a pagan animal, not okay to do. And then it's linked with the slaying of that animal being a meaningful symbol for striking a person, which we saw in the Iliad just a minute ago with the let it be as done to me. Right? And there we have the one who slaughters a bull, strikes a man. Then we have a libation offering of the blood of swine. Not particularly A big feature in Leviticus. No, no. Followed by a reference to an idol. Right. A pagan deity there.

[Brent Billings]

Yeah. If Mary and Joseph knew their text when those magi showed up, they'd be like, ooh, awkward.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yeah, you guys are. Yeah, you guys are off script. But on the other hand, I mean, that. That was their law for them. So who. What's wrong with other people doing their thing? Right. But okay, if Jesus is saying this radical commandment, no more oaths after everybody's been making oaths for forever, I would have shot the eyebrows off the heads of the original listeners and given them a bunch of red flags, like, wait, why you're saying Abraham, our father, shouldn't have done what he did? And then Jesus tips them off, potentially by quoting this passage that he's actually talking about Hellenistic culture. So what if Jesus is telling it slant so that the Romans listening don't know that he's specifically talking about them? So it sounds like just another moral commandment in the midst of a whole bunch of moral commandments. And why might have Jesus had this particular because problem with Hellenistic oaths that he wants to feature it in the Sermon on the Mount and be happy to stop the Jewish culture of oath making along the way? Well, I've got some ideas, I've got some answers.

[Brent Billings]

Would you like me to make a guess before we move on?

[El Grower Fricks]

You certainly may.

[Brent Billings]

Maybe this is addressing specifically the Herodians and their engagement in Greco Roman culture and saying like, hey, you know, it's one thing if you're going to, you know, the arena or something, if you're going to the theater. It's another thing if you're, if you're making these oaths to these, you know, evil things.

[El Grower Fricks]

Right, right. Yes. Very good. It's not just like the legionary forces in the background keeping watch over the crowd that he's poking at. There's certainly Herodians in the crowd, for sure. I want to talk about why individuals might have been making oaths, even if they're not, you know, about to fight the battle of Troy or whatever. And one of the central oaths that was big in this time and probably in their community are oaths of loyalty to the emperor. So we have these different steles in different communities from the first century. One is from Augustus and Paphlagonia, and it's from the year 3 BCE. And we have one from Tiberius and Cyprus in 12 AD CE. And these oaths, or sacramentum, from which we get the word sacraments were allegiance oaths, which listed the gods and Often the emperor amongst them, and required the one making the sacrifice and the oath to pledge fealty to the descendants of the emperor as well as the emperor himself. Marty has talked before about how the emperor is often framed as the savior of the people making the oath, and sometimes even framed as the son of God. And it seems that there are both big inaugural oaths giving at the turning over of a new regime, but there were also sporadic oaths throughout the regime that were required. So by the 2002, emperors were requiring yearly loyalty oaths, especially from the military, but also from the community. And this is one of the reasons that in the early church you had to quit the military to become Christian. There was no, like faith family in country. It was the opposite. You had to swear your allegiance to Adonai or to the state and to the emperor. And so circling back to, well, why did he switch out house after Yerushalayim, the city of the great king? It might be another little tricksy tell it slant poke, because who lives in Jerusalem? Pilate didn't actually live there unless he had to travel into town for the pilgrimage holiday management problem. He actually lived most of the time in Caesarea Maritima. So Jerusalem wasn't the city of any Roman king. It's the city of David, from whom would come the true king. Right. So it seems as if Jesus might be being political and engaged in some nonviolent resistance in a way that we just miss because we aren't thinking about the culture and the history.

[Brent Billings]

I don't know if I told you about my trip to D.C. at all, Al, but I went to the museum of the Bible.

[El Grower Fricks]

Okay.

[Brent Billings]

And they had an exhibit on the Megiddo mosaic. Are you familiar with this?

[El Grower Fricks]

No.

[Brent Billings]

It was a church from the 200s, early 200s, that was funded by a Roman centurion. And they like, you know, have all these inscriptions dedicating it to him and nice talks about all this stuff. But yeah, the idea of him, like, being not just in the Roman military, but like a high, higher ranking member of it and then also, you know, out the back door funneling money to these Christians to develop their community. Yes, it's pretty fun.

[El Grower Fricks]

It is fun. All different ways to engage with empire. Right. Staying within and excising yourself from it. Kind of like Vashti versus Esther. Absolutely. I'm looking at pictures of it now since you mentioned it, and it's pretty cool.

[Brent Billings]

It was super cool.

[El Grower Fricks]

It's got fish on the floor. Love that.

[Brent Billings]

Yeah, they make a big deal out of this fish.

[El Grower Fricks]

What kind of deal do they make?

[Brent Billings]

They just, you know, that's like the highlight. The highlight feature of the mosaic.

[El Grower Fricks]

What do they say about the fish?

[Brent Billings]

I don't remember. Well, it was a while ago, Al.

[El Grower Fricks]

It was like one month. You were just there. Shh.

[Brent Billings]

This episode comes out in April. That was like five months.

[El Grower Fricks]

Okay. Okay. Well, these loyalty oaths, I do think that Jesus is answering a practical question for his people about like, hey, do we do this thing or do we not do this thing? And it seems to me that Jesus could be saying, don't do the thing, but make that the rest of your lifestyle. Right? Become the people who don't make oaths and walk in your integrity and have your yes be yes and your no be no, so that when the Romans come and tell you it's time to call Caesar God, you know, you can say, oh, no, no, we never do oaths. Actually, it could be that kind of thing. It could be the dispute conversation from. From the biblical context that we looked at. But how is any of this practical for us today, Brent?

[Brent Billings]

I mean, for me, it's just simplifying my interest for the podcast, because normally.

[El Grower Fricks]

That'S a really big problem.

[Brent Billings]

It's a big problem.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yeah. We don't tend to live in a culture that says stuff like, I amnipotence, let me not depart from here unless I have redeemed him from captivity.

[Brent Billings]

Yeah, different language. But I think if we examine ourselves, we probably find ourselves doing these sorts of things.

[El Grower Fricks]

I agree. And I have some examples to munch on together. Okay, so in those Greco Roman oaths, like we talked about, there's a specific curse embedded, right? It's if I do not do xyz, let my intestines be torn out. That's a curse. And even the Jewish oaths have a flavor of that idea, even if they don't say it explicitly. Right. They're saying, if I don't redeem that guy from captivity, omnipotence will keep me from departing in some way. Because the phrase is let me not depart from here. So what can we pull out from this? If those curses are implicitly or explicitly tying ourselves to a future that is not of God, but just of our own projection. Right? We're making up something random that'll happen to us in the future if we don't do what we say we're going to do, and scripture is frequently against making proclamations about our future. That's the whole problem with divination in Torah. It's future based because who needs to trust God, if you know that your future spouse is going to appear on the fifth day of spring or whatever the cloud reader or liver reader told you, both of those forms.

[Brent Billings]

Liver reader.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yeah, I think I've talked about that before. Sheep livers.

[Brent Billings]

Oh, sheep livers. I was thinking of my own liver. I'm like, how are they? What are they doing?

[El Grower Fricks]

Leave your organs inside your body, preferably. Unless you're Josh.

[Brent Billings]

Yes, that's true.

[El Grower Fricks]

He should have asked.

[Brent Billings]

Josh should have asked for a liver reading. He's like, hey, after you get that out of there, can you just see it?

[El Grower Fricks]

I have a pic so I can look at it. Okay, so those were really big things at that time. And if you look at the original Hebrew, it doesn't say, like, diviner or whatever. It says things like cloud reader. So cursing yourself via oath is another. A different kind of claim on something. The future, which does not belong to us, to lay a hold of. Right. If we say, you know, like, if me or my husband divorce, may my house be burned. We can't do that because we don't know what marriage holds for us. Your spouse can end up being a con man or a serial killer. Happens not all the time, but it does happen. So that oath we've bound ourselves to is something that we just come up with to add gravity, like we talked about at first, the meaning of the word curse in Hebrew is binding. So when you say a curse, you're binding something to someone. In Greek, the word oath means fence or enclosure. So you're hemming yourself into something. And so are we our own to enclose ourselves within anything of our own creation. So how do we do this? I think we do it in a bunch of ways, but here's a couple that came to my mind. People say all the time, oh, I could never do that. It's like, really, God picked a random Jewish virginal teenager to bear God incarnate. But sure, you can never do public speaking. You're right. Or, oh, if someone asked me to xyz, I would just faint on the spot or fall down dead. Right? We're hemming ourselves in. When we say stuff like that. We're tying ourselves to a future negatively because we have no idea what God is calling us to and what ability he might gift us in or call us to develop along the way. But we still say things like, look, I know myself and I'm just not the kind of person to fill in the blank.

[Brent Billings]

I don't like that.

[El Grower Fricks]

L. This also happens, especially when people are pregnant. The kinds of things said to the parents are outlandishly terrible. I might even say fully pagan and fear based. I are just this week somebody say, don't you say that you went to the baby to come after this particular day because the baby will hear you and come early. It's like, what? Or another one that comes up all the time. Oh, he's going to be trouble. Better lock his doors at night or he'll be sneaking out for sure. Or like, oh, just wait till that person grows up. Stop it. What are we doing? And what. How are we talking about our spouses? You know, the. Oh, that's just the way my husband always is. We do this about our churches. My church would never XYZ because they're so fill in the blank. It's not for us to bind ourselves or our kids or our spouse or anyone else to anything but God in the direction of his spirit. I don't think it's for us to hem ourselves in against any future that God might have in store for us.

[Brent Billings]

Well, I agree.

[El Grower Fricks]

Okay. You were.

[Brent Billings]

Yeah, no, I was thinking of all sorts of personal examples. I was thinking of do we do this as a culture? When we set certain expectations for behaviors or I mean, even something as simple as when you send somebody a text message, there's a cultural expectation that you're going to get a response within a certain amount of time. And maybe that's a little bit longer, a little bit shorter, depending on exactly what part of the culture you're in. But is it as a culture, are we putting all this burden, Are we hemming ourselves into this pressure to do all these things? Is that anywhere within the realm of this? Or is that. Would you call that an entirely separate issue?

[El Grower Fricks]

The way that it feels to me like it links in is if we tell ourselves, if this person doesn't text back within an hour, that means they hate me or they're mad at me or our friendship is actually worthless, Bringing some kind of future extrapolation that we don't actually know anything about that might not be feature oriented, but it's still making a prediction that doesn't end up being wise or helpful when the person could just be in a meeting or a thousand other things.

[Brent Billings]

Yes. Yes. Good. Okay.

[El Grower Fricks]

Okay, great. And if, you know, if you think none of those are particularly related, this all feels like hooey to me. First off, you can just think about the weightiness of words and the way that God creates things and pulls them into being is through words. And we do the same thing or we're Invited to do the same thing through prayer is also word based. And if you still feel like that's too mystical for me, go back to verse 37. Let your statement be yes, yes, no, no. And anything beyond these is from the evil one. I'm not saying I know exactly what doctrinal and theological conclusions to pull from that verse, but it does feel like Jesus is. Is coming onto this idea harder than I am. And so come up with your own functional theory of what he's talking about and how much more seriously we should be taking the idea of our words and what we're doing by accident or on purpose. Read the book of James talking about the tongue, Right. There's so many scriptures, proverbs, and then come on back and say, you know what? I think that it's fine. After you do all that, if you still say you think you're fine, then okay, between you and God.

[Brent Billings]

I often think about Ephesians 4 and how forceful Paul is when he says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up. And it's like, man, if we actually took that seriously. I mean, same thing with so many of Jesus words. If we actually took him seriously. And did this be a different kind of world?

[El Grower Fricks]

I think, yeah. Different life that we would live with it. Maybe we would be more open to living by every word that comes out of the mouth of our shepherd.

[Brent Billings]

I love it. Okay. Do I. Yeah. I'm gonna have to think about this one for sure. I have many things to reflect on.

[El Grower Fricks]

It's a thinker. There are some communities who do take this kind of thing very seriously. I've run into them before by accident and been blessed learning from them. But he'll be like, no, don't say that. I'm like, what? Oh. So I'm certainly not. I don't have it together more than anybody else, but a good thing to think about in community.

[Brent Billings]

Well, even if we have a different interpretation of how seriously to take these words, just being aware that other people take it more seriously or less seriously, and being open to understanding their interpretation and how they got to where they got to.

[El Grower Fricks]

Yeah, absolutely. So imagine everyone complexly.

[Brent Billings]

Yeah, that's good. Okay, well, do you have any resources you want to drop on a cell? Not that I'm swearing by Jerusalem that we would share such resources, but.

[El Grower Fricks]

Wow. Wow, You've learned nothing. Tragic. Everyone pray for Brent, please.

[Brent Billings]

Please do.

[El Grower Fricks]

But, yes, most of them were related to this Greco Roman stuff, so. And then a couple on loyalty oaths. So I have a little packet of light reading that's mostly a joke because it's heavy reading, but academic reading.

[Brent Billings]

Okay.

[El Grower Fricks]

But for people who love that, you're welcome. Merry Christmas in April.

[Brent Billings]

Okay, well, listeners can find those show notes in their podcast app [e-mail] and if you want to get in touch with us, you can use the website, the contact page there. We'll give you the most up to date way to get in touch with us whenever you happen to be listening to this episode. If you want to support the work we do, you can do that through the website. Everything we do is made possible by listeners who have joined us on this journey and want to be a part of what we're doing. So thank you for that.

[El Grower Fricks]

Thank you.

[Brent Billings]

And thank you for joining us on the Behemoth podcast today. We'll talk to you again soon.

[El Grower Fricks]

Bye. And if you could read verses one through three for us. Yes, Brent of Isaiah 66, I would love that.

[Brent Billings]

Not one through four.

[El Grower Fricks]

Come back to four, not come back for four. I decided it's extra, extra.

[Brent Billings]

Thus says Adonai, heaven is my throne and the earth is the footstool for my feet.

[El Grower Fricks]

Oh, just kidding. I'm sorry. I do want four. Sorry, I forgot. I changed my mind. I went back and forth and forgot about the 4th. Did they include this in your special workshop on how to read the textbook? Like one of your ghost interrupts me after I've started?

[Brent Billings]

No, but presumably most voice actors have a director saying similar things in their voice.

[El Grower Fricks]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Brent Billings]

Do you want to do your lead in? Sure.