Annotatio CCLX
”Love not a false oath.” — Zechariah 8:17
Jerome, in book 2 on Zechariah, on the occasion of this precept, seems to affirm that absolutely every oath is interdicted to Christians;1 for he speaks in this manner: “‘Love not a lying oath,’ he says: the Lord in the Gospel commanding, ‘But I say to you, that you swear not at all; but let your speech be, Yea, yea, Nay, nay’:2 for whosoever shall not have sworn will never be able to perjure. In precepts which pertain to life, and are manifest, we ought not to seek an allegory: lest, according to the comic [poet], we seek a knot in a bulrush.” John Arboreus annotated this passage in [his] Theosophia.
See below, Annotation 26 of the following book.