# Taking the lord's name in vain **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2001, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-lords-name-in-vain/67036 "2001-05-31T01:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![curiousgeorgeordeadcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@curiousgeorgeordeadcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curiousgeorgeordeadcat)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-lords-name-in-vain/67036/1 "2001-05-31T01:26:54Z")
One of the 10 commandments, if I remember correctly, is: Thou shalt not take the lord’s name in vain. As a kid, I was told this means don’t say things like “Jesus Christ!” and “God damn it!” when frustrated. But is that really what the commandment is meant to mean? And if so, is that because people started doing this before that part of the bible was written, and they wanted to stamp it out? (I know they wouldn’t have said “Jesus Christ!” before the Old Testament was written, but I am asking if they said things like “God damn it!” or perhaps “By Zeus!”) It seems odd that such an expression would evolve to express frustration. (I would never think to say it if I hadn’t heard it so many times before.) Is there any evidence the commandment is the CAUSE of the expressions? If that is not the correct interpretation of the commandment, then what is? And also the question about whether it might have caused the expressions still applies. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-lords-name-in-vain/67036/2 "2001-05-31T01:32:33Z")
In my Reform Jewish indoctrination, I was taught that they meant it to mean that one should not lie under oath. That is, never say, “I swear to god that x is true,” when you know x not to be true. Haj ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-lords-name-in-vain/67036/3 "2001-05-31T03:03:17Z")
A couple years ago I heard good old Dr. Laura on the radio give her interpretation of this commandment. She said it meant that you don’t do something (bad) and blame or use the lord or your religion as a reason for your actions. You wouldn’t fire-bomb a foreign-owned store for example and say that the bible says it’s the right thing to do - or you wouldn’t kill or make war with a person or people from a differing culture or religion and use the excuse of your god telling you (in some way or form) that said group is wrong or evil and must be smitten. There seems to be many examples of this kind of “taking the Lord’s name in vain” in the middle-east, where there always seems to be some kind of religious violence happening. Using “the Lord” as an excuse for bad behavior when it really isn’t endorsed by him seems to be the idea. It apparently has nothing to do with yelling “God Dammit!” when you hit your thumb with a hammer. ---
**Author:** ![Philosophocles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Philosophocles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philosophocles)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-lords-name-in-vain/67036/4 "2001-05-31T03:25:41Z")
I’d say that taking the Lord’s name in vain would be when someone is always praising God with their lips and cursing God with their deeds. Someone getting a little ticked off and saying “God damn it!!!” is not nearly as troublesome as someone who wears a facade of piety and yells, “Jesus, Jesus, Pu-Raise tha Lawd Gawd Almighty!!! blah blah blah, etc.” while supporting injustice. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-lords-name-in-vain/67036/5 "2001-05-31T03:35:36Z")
This looks like it will turn into an IMHO thread or, more likely, a Great Debate, and was written such that it was probably more or less intended that way from the start. But, we might as well get the Official Interpretations on the record at the start, especially since this _is_ General Questions (for the moment, anyway). From the [Baltimore Catechism](http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Catechism/4/bk4ls32.html#RTFToC2) (Catholic): > [@](#): > > \*\*345. Q. What is the Second Commandment? > A. The Second Commandment is: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. > > “In vain”\*\* – that is, without necessity. > > \*\*346. Q. What are we commanded by the Second Commandment? > > A. We are commanded by the Second Commandment to speak with reverence of God and of the saints, and of all holy things, and to keep our lawful oaths and vows.\*\* > > A very common sin against this Commandment is to use the words and sayings of Holy Scripture in a worldly or bad sense. The Church forbids us to use the words and sayings of Holy Scripture to convey any meaning but the one God intended them to convey, or at least to use them in any but a sacred sense. From [Martin Luther’s Smaller Catechism](http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/little.book/web/book-1.html) (see also [Martin Luther’s Larger Catechism)](http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/catechism/web/cat-04.html): > [@](#): > > **B. The Second Commandment** > > **You must not misuse your God’s name.** > > **Q.** What does this mean? > > **A.** We must fear and love God, so that we will not use His name to curse, swear, cast a spell, lie or deceive, but will use it to call upon Him, pray to Him, praise Him and thank Him in all times of trouble. From the [Westminster Shorter Catechism](http://www.opc.org/documents/WSC.html) (Presbyterian): > [@](#): > > **Q. 53. Which is the third commandment?** > A. The third commandment is, _Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain._ > > **Q. 54. What is required in the third commandment?** > A. The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works > > **Q. 55. What is forbidden in the third commandment?** > A. The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God maketh himself known. [Links to proof texts omitted – MEB] [This explanation](http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm) of the Jewish view of the commandment is probably not as authoritative (in an institutional sense), but seems to have been repeated by several sources: > [@](#): > > Jews do not casually write any Name of God. This practice does not come from the commandment not to take the Lord’s Name in vain, as many suppose. In Jewish thought, that commandment refers solely to oath-taking, and is a prohibition against swearing by God’s Name falsely or frivolously (the word normally translated as “in vain” literally means “for falsehood”). Note that Catholics and Lutherans consider the prohibition against taking the name of God in vain to be the Second Commandment; Jews and most Protestants consider it to be the Third Commandment. ---
**Author:** ![curiousgeorgeordeadcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@curiousgeorgeordeadcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curiousgeorgeordeadcat)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-lords-name-in-vain/67036/6 "2001-05-31T04:35:25Z")
Actually I did not mean this as an IMHO thread. I was wondering about historical details regarding the commandment and the sayings. Really it would help if someone can give the origins of phrases like “God damn it!” and “Jesus Christ!”, etc. I am really interested in any connection between these phrases and the commandment. I suspect one caused the other, and I would like to know which one caused which, or if neither, how the sayings originated. It seems from these posts the sayings did not cause the commandment. But we are only part of the way to the full answer…