Sacred text: Encyclopedia - Sacred text

Sacred text

Many religions and spiritual movements believe that their sacred texts (or scriptures) are the "Word of God", often feeling that the texts are wholly divine or spiritually inspired in origin. Even non-believers often capitalize the names of sacred scriptures as a mark of respect or tradition.

Although ancient civilizations have produced handmade texts for thousands of years, the first printed scripture for wide distribution to the masses was The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, printed in the year AD 868.

Sacred text - Texts

Sacred texts of various religions:

• Ásatrú
  • The Poetic Edda, including especially the Hávamál
  • The Younger Edda
• Ayyavazhi
  • The Akilattirattu Ammanai
  • The Arul Nool
• Bahá'í Faith
  • The Kitáb-i-Aqdas
  • Kitáb-i-Íqán
  • and many other writings including ones from other faiths
• Buddhism
  • The Tipitaka or Pali canon
  • and other Buddhist texts
• Christianity - The Bible (also referred to as the Holy Writ)
  • Catholicism
    • The Bible, The Apocrypha
  • Mormonism
    • The Bible
    • Book of Mormon
    • Pearl of Great Price
    • Doctrine and Covenants
• Confucianism
  • The Analects of Confucius
  • also The I Ching
• Discordianism
  • The Principia Discordia although this may not be true for every sect.
• Falun Gong
  • The Zhuan Falun
• Hinduism
  • Veda
  • Shruti
  • Smriti, particularly the Bhagavad Gita
• Islam
  • The Qur'an
  • Ahadith
• Jainism
  • Tattvartha Sutra
• Judaism
  • The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)
    • Torah
    • Nevi'im
    • Ketuvim
• Mandaeanism
  • The Ginza Rba
• Manichaeism
  • The Arzhang
• Mohism
  • The Mozi
• Various New Age religions may regard any of the following texts as inspired:
  • A Course in Miracles (ACIM)
  • Conversations with God
  • The Urantia Book
  • Oahspe
• Swedenborgianism
  • The Bible
  • The writings of Emanuel Swedenborg
  • Some also consider a number of posthumously published manuscripts of Swedenborg to also be sacred.
• Rastafari movement
  • The Bible
  • the Holy Piby
• Samaritanism
  • The Samaritan Pentateuch
• Satanism
  • The Satanic Bible
• Sikhism
  • The Guru Granth Sahib
  • The Dasam Granth Sahib
• Taoism
  • The Tao-te-ching
  • The I Ching
• Thelema
  • The Holy Books of Thelema especially Liber Al vel Legis
• Zoroastrianism
  • The Zend-Avesta

Sacred text - Views

Attitudes to sacred texts differ. Some religions make written texts widely freely available, while others hold that sacred secrets must remain hidden from all but the loyal and the initiate. Most religions promulgate policies defining the limits of the sacred texts and controlling or forbidding changes and additions. Translations of texts may receive official blessing, but an original sacred language often has de facto, absolute or exclusive paramouncy. Some religions make texts available gratis or in subsidised form; others require payment and the strict observance of copyright.

References to scriptures profit from standardisation: the Guru Granth Sahib (of Sikhism) always appears with standardised page numbering while the Abrahamic religions and their offshoots appear to favour chapter and verse pointers.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Sacred text", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki