But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these comes from evil.
All Commentaries on Matthew 5:37 Go To Matthew 5
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But let your communication be, &c.—i.e, a simple affirmation, or negation. For what is more than these, Gr. πεÏισσὸν. The Syriac has, what is added beyond these. In the Hebrew Gospel ascribed to S. Matthew , we have ×ין ×ין ain, ain, כן כן ken, ken—that is no, no, Song of Solomon , so. In this passage a simple affirmation or negation is opposed to an oath; so in S. James (v12); and it means that whatever is added to these in the way of swearing, is of evil. So S. Chrysostom and S. Jerome, or rather Paulinus, Epist. ad Celantium.
Of evil. Evil here may be taken either in the masculine or the neuter gender. If the masculine the devil is meant, who, as a ringleader of all iniquity, incites thee to swear without necessity, and so draws thee on by degrees to swear falsely, which is the sin of perjury. So Theophylact, Maldonatus, and others. If you take the neuter, it means cometh of vice, either your own or another"s—that is to say, the custom of swearing arises either from your own vice of levity or irreverence, or else from another man"s incredulity and distrust. Because a man does not believe my simple assertion, I confirm my words by an oath, which, however, is a fault become necessary since the fall of man. So S. Augustine.
