Most religions have religious texts they view as sacred. Many religions and spiritual movements believe that their sacred texts are wholly divine or spiritually inspired in origin. Monotheistic religions often view their sacred texts as the "Word of God", often feeling that the texts are inspired by God. Even non-believers often capitalize the names of sacred scriptures as a mark of respect or tradition. Another interpretation of the "Word of God" is that it was with the power of the Word that God brought into existence Heaven and Earth, and that this power continues to maintain a balance (i.e the movement of the planets and stars, cycles of nature). This is akin to the concept of the Greek Logos or the Chinese Tao.

The Rigveda of Hinduism was likely composed between roughly 1500–1300 BCE, making it one of the world's oldest religious texts. The oldest portions of the Zoroastrian Avesta are believed to have been transmitted orally for centuries before they found written form, and although widely differing dates for Gathic Avestan (the language of the oldest texts) have been proposed, scholarly consensus floats at around 1000 BCE (roughly contemporary to the Brahmana period of Vedic Sanskrit).

The first printed scripture for wide distribution to the masses was The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, printed in the year 868 CE.

In English language, the term scriptures can be used to describe any religion's sacred text as in Hindu scriptures, Jewish scriptures, etc. but when capitalized, in English literature, the word Scriptures generally refers to the sacred texts of the Bible, also referred to as Holy Scripture.

Texts

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Sacred texts of various religions:

Ásatrú

• The Poetic Edda, including especially the Hávamál
• The Younger Edda

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), and
  • in Mormonism:
    • The Book of Mormon
    • The Pearl of Great Price
    • The Doctrine and Covenants
  • in Spiritism:
    • The Spirits Book
    • The Book of Mediums
    • The Gospel According to Spiritism
    • Heaven and Hell
    • The Genesis According to Spiritism

Discordianism

• The Principia Discordia, although this may not be true for every sect.
  • The Apocrypha Discordia, although this may not be true for every sect.
• There are many other holy texts within Eristic cabals, as pretty much anyone can canonize things.

Etruscan religion

• Pyrgi Tablets
• Tabula Cortonensis
• Liber Linteus
• Cippus Perusinus

Falun Gong

• The Zhuan Falun

Hinduism

• Śruti
  • Vedas
    • Rig Veda
    • Sama Veda
    • Yajur Veda
    • Atharva Veda
  • Brahmanas
  • Aranyakas
  • Upanishads
• Smriti
  • Itihāsas
    • Mahābhārata
      • Bhagavad Gītā
    • Ramayana
    • Puranas (List)
  • Tantras
  • Sutras (List)
  • Stotras
  • Ashtavakra Gita
  • Gherand Samhita
  • Gita Govinda
  • Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Islam

• The Qur'an (the holy book of Islam)
• Ahadith (sayings and doings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad)

Jainism

• Tattvartha Sutra

Judaism

• The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)
  • Torah
  • Nevi'im
  • Ketuvim

Mandaeanism

• The Ginza Rba

Manichaeism

• The Arzhang

New Age religions

Various New Age religions may regard any of the following texts as inspired:

• Course in Miracles
• Conversations with God
• Oahspe
• The Urantia Book

Rastafari movement

• The Bible
• the Holy Piby
• the Kebra Negast
• The speeches of Haile Selassie I
• Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy

Samaritanism

• The Samaritan Pentateuch

Satanism

• The Satanic Bible

Sikhism

• The Guru Granth Sahib
• The Dasam Granth Sahib

SubGenius

• The Book of the SubGenius

Swedenborgianism

• The Bible
• The writings of Emanuel Swedenborg
• Some also consider a number of posthumously published manuscripts of Swedenborg to also be sacred.

Taoism

• The Tao-te-ching
• The I Ching
• The Chuang Tzu

Thelema

• The Holy Books of Thelema especially Liber Al vel Legis

Unification Church

• Divine Principle
• Wolli Hesul (Explanation of the Divine Principle)
• Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle)

Zoroastrianism

• Primary:
  • The Avesta collection of texts:
    • The Yasna, the primary liturgical collection, includes the Gathas.
    • The Visparad, a collection of supplements to the Yasna.
    • The Yashts, hymns in honor of the divinities.
    • The Vendidad, describes the various forms of evil spirits and ways to confound them.
    • shorter texts and prayers, the five Nyaishes ("worship, praise"), the Sirozeh and the Afringans (blessings).
• Secondary:
  • The Dēnkard (middle Persian, 'Acts of Religion'),
  • The Bundahishn, (middle Persian, 'Original Creation')
  • The Mainog-i-Khirad (middle Persian, 'Spirit of Wisdom')
  • The Arda Viraf Namak (middle Persian, 'The Book of Arda Viraf')
  • The Zartushtnamah (modern Persian, 'Book of Zoroaster')
  • The Sad-dar (modern Persian, 'Hundred Doors', or 'Hundred Chapters')
  • The Rivayats (modern Persian, traditional treatises).
• For general use by the laity:
  • The Zend (lit. commentaries), various commentaries on and translations of the Avesta.
  • The Khordeh Avesta, a collection of everyday prayers from the Avesta.

Views

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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.

Hierographology

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Hierographology (Greek ιερος, hieros, "sacred" or "holy", + γραφος, graphos, "writing", + λογος, logos, "word" or "reason") (archaically hierology) is the study of sacred texts.

Increasingly, sacred texts of many cultures are studied within academic contexts, primarily to increase understanding of other cultures, whether ancient or contemporary. Sometimes this involves the extension of the principles of higher criticism to the texts of many faiths. It may also involve a comparative study of religious texts. The hierographology of the Qur'an can be particularly controversial, especially when questioning the accuracy of Islamic traditions about the text.

See also

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• Biblical canon
• Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture

External links

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• Add Bible to your life! Online Bible search and resources. Includes several versions, translations and languages.
• Internet Sacred Texts Archive Extensive online resource for a wide variety of world religions, folklore, and traditional beliefs.
• Ocean Downloadable and searchable database of world religious texts. Extensive Bahá'í, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic & Jewish libraries in seven European languages.
• The Religious Texts Index
• avesta.org: Translations of the Avesta texts

Religious texts

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