“I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Every U.S. president-elect has uttered these 35 Constitutionally-specified words before they’ve entered the White House, from George Washington to Donald Trump. Typically, the president-elect has recited the Oath of Office with one hand on a Bible, but the Constitution doesn’t specify that they need to be sworn in on the Christian text — and some have forgone the ritual. George Washington began the habit of swearing the oath in public, but the swearing in with a hand on the Bible came to the U.S. from the U.K., where British officials have been swearing allegiance to the monarch and the Church of England on the Bible since the 1500s. Coupled with the fact that all U.S. presidents have been at least nominally of a Christian faith, it shouldn’t be surprising that they have opted to swear the oath on a Bible. The type of Bible or biblical passage they choose to be sworn in on is left up to the president-elect’s discretion. Donald Trump swore on the Lincoln Bible, the same one Abraham Lincoln used during his own inauguration. George W. Bush took his oath on a family Bible, which he left closed for his first inauguration in 2001, and then opened to Isaiah 40:31 — “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles….” — for his second inauguration in 2005. Richard Nixon swore on not one but two Bibles belonging to his family. Thomas Jefferson chose not to use a Bible, perhaps as a show of commitment to the separation of church and state, while John Quincy Adams swore on a book of laws. Calvin Coolidge was on vacation in Vermont when he got word that President Warren G. Harding had died. Coolidge’s father, a notary public, swore him in without a Bible. Theodore Roosevelt was in a similar position when he was sworn in hours after President William McKinley’s assassination, and was sworn in without a Bible. Whether sworn on a Bible or not, the purpose of the Oath of Office remains unchanged: to signify that the president-elect will fulfill their duties in service of something greater than themselves.
