The levity of the Jewish nation in regard to oaths, though reproved by some of their doctors (Otho, Lex, p. 361 : Philo, ii, 194), was notorious ; and when we find it entering as an element into popular poetry (iMartial, xi, 9) we cannot ascribe (he imputation to the known injustice of heathen writers towards the Israelites. This national vice, doubtless, had an influence with the Es- senes (q. v.) in placing the prohibition of oaths among the rules of their reformatory order. IModern Orientals habitually use the exclamation Ivshalluh (" in the name of God") on the most trivial occasions.
That no case has been made out by Christian com- mentators in favor of judicial swearing we do not af- firm;* but we must be excused if we add that the case is a ver}' weak one, wears a casuistical appearance, and as if necessitated in order to excuse existing usages and guard against errors iminited to unpopular sects, such as the Quakers and Mennonites. II inferential and merely probable conclusions, such as the case consists i of, may be allowed to prevail against the explicit lan- guage of Jesus and James, Scripture is robbed of its certainty, and prohibitions the most express lose theii force. For instance, it has been alleged that our Lord himself took part in an oath when, being adjured by the high-priest, he answered "Thou hast said'" (Matt. xxvi, 63, 04). But what has this to do with his own doctrine on the point? Placed at the bar of judgment, Jesus was a criminal, not a teacher, bound by the Jaws of his country — which it was a part of his plan never unnecessarily to disregard — to give an answer to the question judicially put to him, "and bound equally by a regard to the great interests which he had come into the world to serve. Jesus did not swear, but was sworn. The putting the oath he could not prevent. His sole question was. Should he answer the interrogatory? — a question which depended on considerations of the high- est moment, and which he who alone could judge de- cided in the affirmative. That question in effect was, "Art thou the Messiah?" His reply was a simple af- firmative. The employment of the adjuration was the
SWEARING
50
SWEDEN
act of the magistrate, to have olijcctod to which would have broiifjht on Jesus the cliarj;e of eiiuivocation, if not of evasion, or even tlie denial of his " liii^ii calling." The 1,'eneral tendency <if this ariicle is to sliow l^ow de- sirable it is that the practice of oatli-takiiii; of all kinds, judicial as well as others, shoidd at least be diminished till, at the proper time, it is totally abolished ; for what- soever is more than a simi>le atlirmatioii cometh from the Evil One, tK rov TTOvt]pov (Matt, v, 37), and equally lead- eth to evil. See Lytiii Dixs.de .htnimcnto; Nicolai, De Juram. I/cbneoritni, Gnvcoruin, Roinaiiorum, aliorumque Populorum; Seldeni Diss. deJnnimentis; Jlolembecii De Juramento per Geniiim rrincipis ; Spenceri Diss, de Junimento per A nchialnm — all of which may be found in vol. xxvi of Ugolino's Thesaurus Antiq. Sacr. See also Hansen, De Jurument. Veil, in (incvius, Thesaurus; Carpzov, Appar. p. 052 sq. ; Steiider, De Jurejur. Sec. Discip. Ileb. (Lips. IT.'it!) ; rurinaini, De Jurejur. ex Mente Ilehr. (Fraidif. 17.S-2) ; Valckenaer, De Ritib. in Ju- rejur. a Vet. Ilehr. et Gnec. Ohserv. (Franek. 1735; and in Oelrich's Collect. I, ii, 175 scj.) ; especially Bassek, De Jurejur. Vet. iiiipr. Rom. (Traj. ad Kli. 1727); Lasaulx, Ueb. d. Eid bet d. Griech. (Wiirzb. 1X44) ; Ueb. d. Eid bet d. Rom. (ibid. 1S14); Otho, Lex. Rabbin, p. 347 sq. A more recent authority inay be found in Stiiudlin, Ge- schichte der Vorstell. s. v. " Eide ;" see also Tyler, Oaths : their Oriyin, etc. See Oath.
SWEAKING, PitoFANE, was severeh' condemned in the ancient Churcii, and seems to have been a common practice. Swearing, or foolish or wicked adjurations by any creature or diemon, by the emperor's genius, by angel and by saint, were reprobated. Perjured persons were placed under special penance. Profanity is also punishable by the civil law of Great Britain, and by the laws of some of the states of the United States.
Sweat (n"T, Gen. iii, 19; "T^, Ezek. xliv, 18; iSpwg, Luke xxii, 44) was one of the physical phenomena at- tending our Lord's agony in the garden of Gethsera- ane as described by Luke (xxii, 44): "His sweat was as it were great drops (literally clots, ^pn/ifioi) of blood falling down to the ground." The genuineness of this verse and of the preceding has been doubted, but is now generally acknowledged. They are omitted in A and B, but are found in the Codex Sinaiticus (X), Codex Beza", and others, and in the Peshito, Philoxenian, and Curetoiuan Syriac (see Tregelles, Greek New Test.; Scrivener, Introd. to the Crit. of the New Test. p. 434), and Tregelles points to the notation of the section and canon in ver. 42 as a trace of the existence of the verse in the Codex Alexandrinus.
Of this maladv, 'known in'medical science by the term diapedesis, there have been examples recorded both in ancient and inodcrn times. Aristotle was aware of it {De Fart. Anini. iii, 5). The cause assigned is gener- ally violent mental emotion. " Kannegiesser," quoted by Dr. Stroud (I'hi/s. Cause of the Death of Christ, p. 86), " remarks, 'Violent mental excitement, whether oc- casioned by uncontrollable anger or vehement joy, and in like manner sudden terror or intense fear, forces out a sweat, accom]>anied with signs either of anxiety or hilarity.' After ascribing this sweat to the unequal constriction of some vessels and dilatation of others, he further observes: ' If the mind is seized with a sudden fear of death, the sweat, owing to the excessive degree of constriction, often becomes bloody.' " Dr. Millingen {Curiosities of Medical Experience, p. 489, 2d ed.) gives the following explanation of the phenomenon : " It is probable tliat this strange disorder arises from a violent commotion of the nervous system, turning the streams of blood out -of their natural course, and forcing the red particles into the cutaneous excretories. A mere relax- ation of the fibres could not produce so powerful a re- vulsion. It may also arise in cases of extreme debili- ty, in connection with a thinner condition of the blood."