Howdy, y'all. Welcome back to The Moral Vision of Jesus Christ, the most exhaustive gospel study you will ever read. If you're new, check this out from the beginning by clicking here.
Before we get going today, I'd like to admit that I have not been very good, to this time, with the housekeeping portion of this writing. For the longest time, I neglected to put a "what comes next" button on the bottom of each section of writing, such that it might have been difficult for someone to navigate all the way through the body of work from the beginning. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. I've just spent an uncomfortable hour remedying that error, and I promise to stay up-to-date with that moving forward.
I appreciate your patience.
Today, we finish up Jesus' "Teaching About Oaths" with a couple of verses that look fairly straightforward at the outset, but are relatively tricky to access in full. We are in the middle of Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount," a lengthy discourse that spells out, better than any other section of text in the gospel, Jesus' expectations for his followers and his understanding of human morality. Every word here is worth looking at with a magnifying glass.
Let's get started.
------------------------------Before we get going today, I'd like to admit that I have not been very good, to this time, with the housekeeping portion of this writing. For the longest time, I neglected to put a "what comes next" button on the bottom of each section of writing, such that it might have been difficult for someone to navigate all the way through the body of work from the beginning. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. I've just spent an uncomfortable hour remedying that error, and I promise to stay up-to-date with that moving forward.
I appreciate your patience.
Today, we finish up Jesus' "Teaching About Oaths" with a couple of verses that look fairly straightforward at the outset, but are relatively tricky to access in full. We are in the middle of Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount," a lengthy discourse that spells out, better than any other section of text in the gospel, Jesus' expectations for his followers and his understanding of human morality. Every word here is worth looking at with a magnifying glass.
Let's get started.
Matthew 5:36 through 5:37
36 Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
37 Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.
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Today, we'll begin by interpreting the two verses at hand broadly. Next, we'll take a look at the Koine Greek that constitutes the phrase "from the evil one," and try to interpret those words in the context of ancient Judaism. Finally, we'll look at the ancient practice of hair-dying as context for our reading, asking ourselves "was it really not possible to change one's hair color in Jesus' time?"
Broad Interpretation
Recall that, last we met, Jesus told his followers that it was not okay to take oaths, even though the Law of Moses sanctioned oath taking and even though the Old Testament is full of all kinds of ancient Jews (and even God himself) taking all kinds of oaths. Jesus' words, again, appeared in the "you have heard it said... but I say..." format, which we have seen a lot of lately. Recall that the "you have heard it said... but I say..." format constitutes what we call the "Antitheses." The Six Antitheses are a highly structured set of verses that show Jesus negating the Law of Moses and augmenting it with his own view of morality. The Antitheses are some of the most profound teachings that Jesus will offer during his Galilean Ministry in any of the gospels.
In today's verses, Jesus elaborates on his prohibition on oath-taking by telling his followers that they should not swear an oath even by their own head, because one cannot change the color of one's hair. Jesus, in Matthew 5:35, was just saying not to swear "by the Earth" or "by Jerusalem" because these things were God's, not humanity's. This train of thought continues into Matt 5:36, which clearly indicates that Jesus thinks of a person's head as being in the domain of God, and not of the person.
That said, we can summarize Matthew 5:34 through 5:36 thus: "all things in creation are God's, and to swear by something that is God's is a blasphemy, so you are not permitted to swear at all."
In Matthew 5:37, Jesus offers his positive prescription of behavior in regard to oaths. He says that one shouldn't swear oaths or make promises, but rather that they should simply affirm or deny whatever they wish to affirm or deny. He says that anything more than a simple "yes" or "no" is "from the evil one." Simplicity and honesty are the order of the day from Jesus, and they remained the order for early Christians.
Some Koine Words
Now, for a moment, we're going to focus on the Greek phrasing "ek tou ponērou," which we have translated here as "from the evil one." To dissect this rapidly, "ek" is simply the ancient Greek word for "from." "Tou," unsurprisingly, is the article "the," and "ponērou" is the word from which we arrived at "evil one."
"Ponērou" occurs as it does in Matt 5:37 only six times in the entire gospel. One of those instances, in Matt 6:13, applies to the segment of the Lord's Prayer which reads "...but deliver us from evil." "Ponērou" is translated simply as "evil" about as often as it is translated as "the evil one" in these six instances.
The New American Bible notates Matthew 5:37's use of "ponērou" as meaning "the devil." This is the most common understanding of the verse. As we've discussed before, the idea of a "devil" is one that didn't exist with the most ancient Jews. You cannot find a reference to "the devil" or "Satan" anywhere in the foundational writings of Moses. The idea of a "devil" didn't enter the Jewish worldview until much later, when the Jews had been exposed to dualistic religious systems like Zoroastrianism. By the time of Jesus, some Jews did believe in some form of "devil," but the concept of a fallen angel named "Satan" who occupied a fiery underworld and coaxed all humans to him through sin didn't evolve fully until after Jesus' death. Thus, even if Jesus did say "the evil one" in his Teaching About Oaths, it is impossible to know exactly what he meant by the term, and it is certain that he didn't mean "the devil" in the way modern "Christians" understand "the devil."
To be clear and redundant: there is no good evidence that Jesus believed in the fallen-angel, anti-God of a devil that today's "Christians" believe in. In interpreting today's reading, it behooves us to concede that the devil is only vaguely illuminated in the gospel, and, more often than not, seems to be a literary personification of evil itself. Ultimately, the "evil one" has no bearing on the moral prescription of Jesus Christ to his followers. Whether Jesus meant, in Matt 5:37, that oaths are "evil" or that oaths are "from the evil one," his expectation of his followers is the same: do not take oaths. This will hold true throughout the gospel; devil or no devil, Christ's moral prescription remains the same.
Over the coming years, I hope you will not tire of me explaining that the devil that modern American "Christians" believe in didn't exist in the gospel. It is a point we will revisit over and over again.
Hair Dying in Ancient Times
Before we wrap up today's study, I'd like to point out, as many have before me, that Jesus may have been technically mistaken in his words in Matthew 5:36. Whereas Jesus seems to indicate a person's innate inability to alter his or her hair color, it is in fact true that ancient peoples living centuries before Jesus were able to change their hair color via several different methods.
Both the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Greeks were known to darken light or graying hair by various means. From an article by Deven Hopp, writing for the online beauty publication "Byrdie:"
Given how accomplished the Egyptians were as a civilization, it shouldn’t really surprise us that they, too, dabbled in hair dye. They would use henna to camouflage gray hair (yes, the preoccupation with grays dates way back).
Years later, the Greeks and Romans used plant extracts to color their strands. They also created a permanent black hair dye. However, when they discovered it was too toxic to use, they switched to a formula made with leeches that had been fermented in a lead vessel for two months. It took a few hundred years to expand the color choices beyond black.
Leeches and lead? Forgive me for letting my cultural relativism slide in saying "gross!"
We know of the ancient Romans dying their hair from many sources, including the poet Ovid. In fact, Ovid leaves us an entire poem about hair dying gone awry. The fourteenth entry of the first book of his timeless "Amores" has him consoling a love interest who has become nearly bald by dying her hair too frequently. The poem was first published in 16 BC, and is quite hilarious. It reads roughly as follows:
I always used to say; "Do leave off doctoring your hair." And now you have no hair left, that you can be dyeing. But, if you had let it alone, what was more plenteous than it? It used to reach down your sides, so far as ever they extend. And besides: Was it not so fine, that you were afraid to dress it; just like the veils which the swarthy Seres use? Or like the thread which the spider draws out with her slender legs, when she fastens her light work beneath the neglected beam? And yet its colour was not black, nor yet was it golden, but though it was neither, it was a mixture of them both. A colour, such as the tall cedar has in the moist valleys of craggy Ida, when its bark is stript off.
Besides, it was quite tractable, and falling into a thousand ringlets; and it was the cause of no trouble to you. Neither the bodkin, nor the tooth of the comb ever tore it; your tire woman always had a whole skin. Many a time was it dressed before my eyes; and yet, never did the bodkin seized make wounds in her arms. Many a time too, in the morning, her locks not yet arranged, was she lying on the purple couch, with her face half upturned. Then even, unadorned, was she beauteous; as when the Thracian Bacchanal, in her weariness, throws herself carelessly upon the green grass. Still, fine as it was, and just like down, what evils, alas! did her tortured hair endure! How patiently did it submit itself to the iron and the fire; that the curls might become crisp with their twisting circlets. "'Tis a shame," I used to cry, "'tis a shame, to be burning that hair; naturally it is becoming; do, cruel one, be merciful to your own head. Away with all violence from it; it is not hair that deserves to be scorched; the very locks instruct the bodkins when applied."
Those beauteous locks are gone; which Apollo might have longed for, and which Bacchus might have wished to be on his own head. With them I might compare those, which naked Dione is painted as once having held up with her dripping hand. Why are you complaining that hair so badly treated is gone? Why, silly girl, do you lay down the mirror with disconsolate hand? You are not seen to advantage by yourself with eyes accustomed to your former self. For you to please, you ought to be forgetful of your former self.
No enchanted herbs of a rival have done you this injury; no treacherous hag has been washing you with Itæmonian water. The effects, too, of no disease have injured you; (far away be all bad omens;) nor has an envious tongue thinned your abundant locks;'twas your own self who gave the prepared poison to your head. Now Germany will be sending for you her captured locks; by the favour of a conquered race you will be adorned. Ah! how many a time will you have to blush, as any one admires your hair; and then you will say, "Now I am receiving praise for a bought commodity! In place of myself, he is now bepraising some Sygambrian girl unknown to me; still, I remember the time when that glory was my own."
Wretch that I am! with difficulty does she restrain her tears; and she covers her face with her hand, having her delicate cheeks suffused with blushes. She is venturing to look at her former locks, placed in her bosom; a treasure, alas! not fitted for that spot.
Calm your feelings with your features; the loss may still be repaired. Before long, you will become beauteous with your natural hair.
Ha!
Ovid's bald lover, as we're told, will now have to wear the hair of some German girl, in the form of a wig. If people compliment her hair, she will be tortured by the fact that they are complimenting the hair of a foreigner, and not her natural locks. Again, I find the whole poem quite entertaining.
As for the ancient Palestinian context, we know that even the ancient Jews had the capacity and desire to dye their hair. Our old friend Josephus tells us, in his "Antiquities of the Jews," that Herod used to dye his hair. From Book 16, Chapter 8:
... Herod despaired to live much longer; (...) in order to cover his great age, he colored his hair black, and tried to conceal what would reveal how old he was....
It would appear that Herod, who lived at the same time as Christ, and in the same region, colored his hair for the same reason people color their hair today. The vanity of it all!
So it was possible to change one's hair color in Jesus' time. Perhaps, circumstantially, Jesus didn't know that coloring hair was something people could do. Or perhaps he meant, in Matt 5:36, that one cannot change their natural hair color. Either way, I found it interesting to note the potential incongruence of this verse with historical reality.
Takeaways
Here are your takeaways for Matt 5:36 and 5:37:
1) Jesus considered all of creation to be the domain of God. Even the top of your head.
2) Jesus thought that the honesty of his followers should speak for itself. He told his followers not to swear oaths of any kind ever.
3) The use of the word "ponērou" in the gospel is not always translated as "the evil one," and thus cannot always mean "the devil."
4) Don't mess with your beautiful hair too much or you will go bald, says ancient Roman poet Ovid.
Next time, we'll begin dissecting what is perhaps my favorite of Jesus' teachings, Jesus' "Teaching About Retaliation." Until then, thank you for reading, and please share this writing.
Love.
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