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[naraht]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Actually, while many today surely see it as just an old-fashioned practice or just "how we do things," that is pretty close to what it means.

To swear is to make an oath, and an oath by definition is an appeal to a deity or something else that one considers sacred (one's honor, one's grandmother's grave, "all that is holy") as a witness or testament to the truth of what one is saying or to the binding nature of what one is promising. The meaning of placing one's hand on a sacred text is to invoke symbolically the deity/ies of whom that text speaks to witness the oath.

Exactly, Lionel de Rothschild, the first Jew elected to the Parliament of Great Britiain was refused to be seated (and re-elected anyway) because he refused to take the oath and the Christian Bible and using the standard form of the oath which was Christian Oath, this went on through 4 parliaments...