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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 capitalise 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.

1 Texts

Sacred texts of various religions:

Hinduism: Shruti ( Vedas; also Aranyakas, Brahmanas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata)
Buddhism: The Tipitaka, Pali canon and other Buddhist textsBuddhist texts come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. Buddhists place varying value on texts: attitudes range from worship of the text itself, to dismissal of texts as falsification of the ineffable truth. Texts can be divided up in a number of ways,
JudaismJudaism is the religion and culture of the Jewish people and the first recorded monotheistic faith. The tenets and history of Judaism constitute the historical foundation of many other religions, including Christianity and Islam. Star of David, a common s: The Hebrew BibleHebrew Bible refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian canons. It is a bias-free term that is preferred to both Tanakh and Old Testament when discussing the text in academic writing. 3 of the Style Manual for the Society of Biblical Litera ( TanakhTanakh [] (also spelt Tanach or Tenach is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible, based upon the initial Hebrew letters of each part: Torah [] ("The Law"; also: Teaching or Instruction , Chumash [] ("The five", also Pentateuch or The five book = TorahTorah [] is a Hebrew word meaning teaching instruction or especially Law''. It primarily refers to the first section of the Tanakh, i. the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. These books are Genesis Bereishit []), Exodus Shemot []), Leviticus Vayikra [], Nevi'imNevi'im [] or Prophets is the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible). Contents Nevi'im is traditionally divided into two parts: First Prophets or Nevi'im Rishonim [ ] which contains the narrative books of Joshua through Kings., KetuvimKetuvim is the third and final section of the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible). The Hebrew word ketuvim means "writings. In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually entitled "The Writings" or "Hagiographa. In the Jewish textual tradition, C)
Zoroastrianism: The Zend-Avesta
Christianity: The Christian Bible
Taoism: The Tao-te-ching, also The I Ching
Confucianism: The Analects of Confucius, also The I Ching
Islam: The Qur'an
Mandaeanism: The Ginza Rba
Sikhism: The Guru Granth Sahib and The Dasam Granth Sahib
Mormonism: The Christian Bible, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants
Bahá'í Faith: The Kitab-i-Iqan, plus many other writings including ones from other faiths
Thelema: The Holy Books of Thelema especially Liber Al vel Legis
Various New Age religions may regard any of the following texts as inspired:

2 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.

3 External links

Sacred-texts.com

Religious texts

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