The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “swear (an oath)” or “vow” in English is otherwise translated as:
- “God sees me, I tell the truth to you” (Tzeltal)
- “loading yourself down” (Huichol)
- “speak-stay” (implying permanence of the utterance) (Sayula Popoluca)
- “say what could not be taken away” (San Blas Kuna)
- “because of the tight (i.e. ‘binding’) word said to a face” (Guerrero Amuzgo)
- “strong promise” (North Alaskan Inupiatun) (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- “eat an oath” (Nyamwezi) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
- “drink an oath” (Jju) (source: McKinney 2018, p. 31).
- “cut taboos” (Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
- “putting one’s hand up to someone” (Cherokee) (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
- “give one’s mouth” (Chuj)
- “tell as serious truth” (Central Pame (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Bauzi “swear” can be translated in various ways. In Hebrews 6:13, for instance, it is translated with “bones break apart and decisively speak.” (“No bones are literally broken but by saying ‘break bones’ it is like people swear by someone else in this case it is in relation to a rotting corpse’ bones falling apart. If you ‘break bones’ so to speak when you make an utterance, it is a true utterance.”) In other passages, such as in Matthew 26:72, it’s translated with an expression that implies taking ashes (“if a person wants everyone to know that he is telling the truth about a matter, he reaches down into the fireplace, scoops up some ashes and throws them while saying ‘I was not the one who did that.'”). So in Matthew 26:72 the Bauzi text is: “. . . Peter took ashes and defended himself saying, ‘I don’t know that Nazareth person.'” (Source: David Briley)
See also swear / vow (by God), swear (promise), and Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’, or ‘No, No’.
The Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew that is translated as “hair” in English is translated in Tzeltal as stsotsil sjol (Tzeltal de Oxchuc y Tenejapa) / stsotsel sjol (Tzeltal Bachajón): “blanket for the head.” (Source: Slocum / Watkins 1988, p. 35)
See also hair (body hair) and hairy (like Esau).
Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 5:36:
- Uma: “Also do not swear naming our (incl.) head, because we (incl.) are not able to make our (incl.) hair white or black, not even just one hair.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
- Yakan: “Do not swear like for example you say, ‘May my head split if it is not true!’ because it is not you who made your body. Even one single hair of yours you cannot make grow black or white.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
- Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And even your head, if there is that which you will promise, don’t say may your hair turn white if you do not carry it out, for you have no power to make even one of your hairs turn white or turn black.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
- Kankanaey: “Even your heads, don’t swear-by them because you are not able to turn-white or turn-black even one hair.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
- Tagbanwa: “Yes indeed, it really is no longer possible/acceptable for you to say, ‘I swear it even if my head will be cut off,’ because there isn’t even one strand of hair on your head that you can make white or make black to sprout.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Tenango Otomi: “Do not say that you will forfeit your head if it is not true what you say. Because concerning your head, not even one of your hairs can make white nor black.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Matthew 5:33-37:
You know what the Bible teaches about promises —
“Don’t make a promise in the Lord’s name,
unless you intend to keep it!”
But I tell you not to swear by anything when you make a promise —
not by heaven — it’s God’s throne,
not by the earth — it’s God’s footstool,
not by Jerusalem — it’s the city of the great king,
not by your own head — you can’t grow white or black hairs at will.
When you make a promise, just give your word!
Anything else comes from the devil.
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