World religions sacred texts.

[mewtwo]

I am looking to start reading the world religions sacred texts. So far i have read the Tao Te Ching and that is all. The books I wana get are as follows.

 

The Bible Christanity

Koran muslum

Sutras Buddhism

 

Anyone else know of the holy texts for the other major religions of the world?

[doc benway]

Judaism - The Five Books of Moses and the Talmud

Hindu - Bhagavad Gita

[dwai]

I am looking to start reading the world religions sacred texts. So far i have read the Tao Te Ching and that is all. The books I wana get are as follows.

 

The Bible Christanity

Koran muslum

Sutras Buddhism

 

Anyone else know of the holy texts for the other major religions of the world?

 

Wikipedia has a good list of Hindu/Vedic Texts --

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas

[Creation]

The term scripture is kind of ambiguous. What is considered most important and/or authoritative? What is considered heretical by one denomination but not another? So not all of this would be called scripture depending on who you ask. A star indicates what I think are considered to be the most important/authoritative/universally accepted in each group.

 

Judaism:

*The Tanakh (acronym for Torah ("Teaching," also known as the Five Books of Moses), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings")) contains the History and Laws, and Devotional/Prophetic/wisdom writings of the Ancient Israelites.

- Apocalyptic writings from the period between the composition of the Tanakh and the Rabbinic period.

- The Talmud is a compliation of literature from the early rabbinic period.

- The fundamental texts of Kabbalah are the Sepher Yezirah and the Zohar.

 

Christianity:

* The Old Testament: Same as the Tanakh of Judaism.

* The New Testament: 4 gospels (life and teachings of Jesus), a history of the early church, letters written by early church leaders, and a book of prophecy.

- The Apocrypha: same as Apocalyptic writings of Judaism.

- Writings of the Early Church Fathers: Ignatius, Polycarp, Ireneus, and Origen were the main pre-Constantine ones.

- Things like Gnostic gospels, deemed inauthentic or heretical by the group we know as the Early Church, but making a big comeback today.

 

Islam:

* Koran (Qu'ran)

- Hadith

 

Buddhism:

* Theravada: The Pali cannon is the written record of oral teachings deemed to be the true teachings of Buddha, though written down some centuries after his death.

* Mahayana has its own cannon of teachings of the Buddha. Some popular Sutras are the Heart, Lotus, and Diamond sutras.

 

Hinduism:

* The Vedas are in theory the most important scriptures, but it is not too common to study them anymore. They contain the Upanishads, the philosophical core of Hinduism.

* The most popular scriptures are the epics: Ramayana concerns the avatar Rama and surrounding people/events, Mahabharata concerns the avatar Krishna and surrounding people/events. Within the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad Gita, considered the best summary of Hinduism.

- Secondary writings (Puranas, Agamas): different Hindu groups will emphasize different Upanishads, Puranas and Agamas.

- The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are the most ancient compilation of the whole of the yogic path.

 

Taosim:

* I Ching (Yijing)

- Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor's classic of internal medicine)

* Philosophical works from ~600-200 B.C.: Tao Te Ching (Daodejing), Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), Huai-nan tzu (Huainanzi). Lieh tzu (Liezi) was later but of a similar style.

- Famous alchemical treatises. The Triplex Unity (or Kinship of the Three) is the earliest.

- There is a lot more in the Taoist Cannon (Daozhang).

 

Since some of the starred stuff is pretty long here are some personal recommendations to trim it down: From the Tanakh try Genesis, Exodus, Psalms and Proverbs. From the New Testament try the Gospels. For Taoism try Chuang Tzu. For Hinduism, the Bhagavad Gita. Understanding this stuff in its proper historical and cultural context is an enormous challenge. Much of it will not be nearly as easy reading as Tao Te Ching.

 

I hope this helps, and I apologize for any errors of omission or factual misstatements.

Edited April 11, 2009 by Creation

[Taoist81]

I am looking to start reading the world religions sacred texts. So far i have read the Tao Te Ching and that is all. The books I wana get are as follows.

 

The Bible Christanity

Koran muslum

Sutras Buddhism

 

Anyone else know of the holy texts for the other major religions of the world?

 

Check out www.sacred-texts.com and you will be busy for a looonnng time.

[Gerard]

Another great source of info is this page:

 

http://meta-religion.com/World_Religions/index.html

[mat black]

Incidently, the international parliment of world religions is being held in Melbourne Australia dec 2009

[Squatting Monkey]

There is a world of difference in reading these texts, and to actually understand them.

If I were you I would skim over a few from different traditions, find out which ones resonate with you, and pick ONE.

Study that one for at least a year. Use commentaries from different translators regarding that one text.

This way you will become the teaching, and the teaching will become you.

 

Good Luck

[Maddie]

I think it's interesting that a lot of traditions believe that the act of reading or reciting the text in and of itself is meritorious beyond simply understanding the content. I wonder if there's anything to this?