Thread: ALL religious texts

I was wondering if anyone has studied enough religious texts/holy books that they can answer this question: what is the 'format' of most holy books? For example, the Holy Bible of Christianity is laid out in books, with certain authors and such [the Corinthians, Mark, etc.], and within each is numbered passages. Are most religious books written this way? Or are others written in a more straight-forward manner, a more poetical manner, etc? I realize there are hundreds of religions and their respective books, but I am looking for the most common method [perhaps of just the main religions] of outlining/setting up of a holy book. Thanks!

Well,
The Quran uses verses, the Bhagavad'gita also uses verses, the Bible is arranged in books, as are most of the bible offshoots like the book of Mormon, I have no idea about scientology but since it is based on Hubbard's Dianetics I assume it is in chapters, the Buddhists have sutras, Many of the more ancient religions, native american and such do not have formal written texts but passed the stories and parables and knowledge by word of mouth.

Originally Posted by dmwyant

Well,
The Quran uses verses, the Bhagavad'gita also uses verses, the Bible is arranged in books, as are most of the bible offshoots like the book of Mormon, I have no idea about scientology but since it is based on Hubbard's Dianetics I assume it is in chapters, the Buddhists have sutras, Many of the more ancient religions, native american and such do not have formal written texts but passed the stories and parables and knowledge by word of mouth.

One small point. All scriptures are verses, as are the Buddhist sutras, and as for the native American stories they would probably be written in the same format for easy reference. That is after all why holy books are written that way.

native American stories they would probably be written in the same format for easy reference

Adaptations of convenience for distribution---obviously most of the thousands of religions and other superstitions mans come up with don't have written text at all.

Just for fun the Yazidi use quals, a type of hymns that are easy to remember.

Originally Posted by pavlos

One small point. All scriptures are verses, as are the Buddhist sutras, and as for the native American stories they would probably be written in the same format for easy reference. That is after all why holy books are written that way.

Except for the fact that they layout of the Quran has no chapters or books. It is written in verses and that is it. The Buddhist Sutras are also not written in the same format as the bible, neither is the Bhagavad'gita and that was what MrPiano was asking, if there was a standardized format that religions used for their texts.

I suspect that all(?) preliterate religions were shared as a very long story with divisions spaced appropriately for comfort and the inculcation of the knowledge.
Then came literacy, and the scribes began to write down the stories segments, and much as the criticism of a work of literature leaves the flow of the story and forms a codifide pseudomatrix that attempts to explain the original
so to do religious texts
(justaguess)

Many of the ancient religions used songs hence the whole verse thing. The book of Psalms in the bible are also all songs.

Lack of knowledge seems to be clouding a part of this discussion. The Bible scriptures were, for the most, part written in one long sentence -- there was, generally, no word division, no punctuation, no chapters and no verses in the original Hebrew texts. They were divided into writings placed on scrolls usually by author. However, Moses' writings were divided into five separate scrolls which became known as the law. Psalms and Proverbs probably had some divisions. They were considered a part of the Writings. In between were the Prophets. Those scrolls became the books of the Old Testament, although not arranged in the same order as Hebrews would have arranged them. Greek texts of New Testament books at least had word divisions, but as with Hebrew texts, there were punctuation marks, no chapters, no verses.Perhaps the reason the Q'uran is not divided into books is because it was written by one author. I do not know anything at all about Buddhist or Hindu writings.