Many religions and spiritual movements hold certain written texts (or series of spoken legends not traditionally written down) to be sacred. Often believing that their sacred texts (or scriptures) are wholly divine or partially inspired in origin, the faithful use titles like Word of God to denote the holy writings. Even non-believers often capitalize the names of sacred scriptures as a mark of respect or of tradition.
Although ancient civilizations have produced handmade texts for many millennia, the first printed scripture for wide distribution for the masses was The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, printed in the year 868 AD.
Texts
Sacred texts of various religions:
- Judaism: The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh = Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim)
- Christianity: The Bible (also referred to as the Holy Writ)
- Islam: The Qur'an and Ahadith
- Hinduism: Shruti (Vedas; also Aranyakas, Brahmanas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata)
- Buddhism: The Tipitaka or Pali canon and other Buddhist texts
- Zoroastrianism: The Zend-Avesta
- Taoism: The Tao-te-ching, also The I Ching
- Confucianism: The Analects of Confucius, also The I Ching
- Mandaeanism: The Ginza Rba
- Sikhism: The Guru Granth Sahib and The Dasam Granth Sahib
- Bahá'í Faith: The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Kitáb-i-Íqán, and many other writings including ones from other faiths
- New Christianity: The Bible, Arcana Caelestia , Heaven and Hell, Earths in the Universe , New Jerusalem , White Horse, Last Judgement , Doctrine of the Lord , Doctrine of Life , Doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures , Doctrine of Faith , Continuation of the Last Judgment , Divine Love and Wisdom , Divine Providence, Apocalypse Revealed , Marriage Love , New Church, Soul and Body , True Christian Religion (Some also consider a number of posthumously published manuscripts of Emanuel Swedenborg's to also be sacred.)
- Thelema: The Holy Books of Thelema especially Liber Al vel Legis
- Discordianism: The Principia Discordia, although this may not be true for every sect
- Various New Age religions may regard any of the following texts as inspired:
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.
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