Why Most U.S. Presidents Take the Oath of Office With a Hand on the Bible

For the second time, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office on Inauguration Day Monday in Washington, D.C., by raising his right hand and putting his left hand on top of a Bible.

Why do presidents place a hand on the Bible?

The answer is simple: tradition. That’s what the first President of the United States, George Washington, did in 1789, according to the White House Historical Association. Organizers had forgotten to bring a Bible to the ceremony, so he borrowed one from a Masonic lodge. Other presidents that were sworn in with the Bible that Washington used include Jimmy Carter, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Warren G. Harding, and George H.W. Bush.

Washington also set a precedent of kissing the Bible after taking the oath of office. Presidents followed suit, up until 1853, when Franklin Pierce placed his left hand on the Bible instead of kissing it, stopping the custom.

Some incoming presidents use Bibles that have been in their families for generations. The incumbent, President Biden, was sworn in with a Bible that has been in his family since the 19th century. 

At Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, he used two Bibles—one his mother gave him and the Bible that Lincoln was sworn in with at his first inauguration.

Some presidents did not use a Bible to take the oath of office, including Theodore Roosevelt, who did not use anything when he was sworn into office in 1901, and John Quincy Adams, who chose a legal book for his 1825 swearing-in, to signify his responsibility to uphold the U.S. constitutional law.