Holy Scriptures
-
Christians:
Bibles, Christian
apocrypha and Early Christian Literature
Deuterocanonical Apocrypha
- Muslims:
Quran, Hadith, Sunnah
- Jews:
Torah,
Neviim,
Ketuvim,
Talmud,
Hebraic Literature: Extracts from the Talmud, Midrash and Kabbalah
- Hindus: Vedas:
Rig, Atharva,
Sama,
Yajur,
Bhagavad Gita,
Upanishads
- Buddhists:
Dhammapada,
Saddharma
Pundarika,
Mahayana Texts,
Digha Nikaya
- Confucianism:
Confucian
Analects, Mencius,
Doctrine of the
Mean, The
Great Learning
- Taoism:
Tao te Ching, Chuang
Tzu
-
Shinto: Kojiki,
Nihongi -
- Sikhs:
Holy Guru Granth
Sahib
- Bahai:
Kitab I Aqdas,
Kitab I Iqan
-
Zoroastrians:
Zend Avesta
Most Religions have their Holy Scriptures, but every branch, or denomination, or cult add to those Holy Scriptures the scriptures of their founders or leaders. And these added scriptures are often very important, usually the ones followed by the denomination or cult to carry their religious services and to guide the actual life and stile of their members... and this is called Tradition.
In the Table we have include just a few samples of Traditions of Christian denominations and cults:
For the Lutherans, for example, the Bible is the Holy Scripture... however what rules and regulates their rituals, administration, and the practical way of life is the "Book of Concord" and their many rules and regulations of their synods.
The same rule is applicable for each one of the many Christian Denominations... it is actually what the Catholics call "Tradition", and it is what actually makes the difference between one Christian Denomination ant other.
The same rule applies to each Branch or Denomination of Judaism, Islam, or Eastern Religions.
For the Cults, these secondary scriptures are still more important, affecting even more the actual way of the cult, and the life of every member of the cult. Some of the cults even "use" the Holy Scriptures just to get approval or privilege to their cult doctrines, though often those doctrines are way off the real Holy Scripture they quote. For example:
The Mormons: They use the Bible as their Holy Scripture, but also the "Book of Mormon", "Doctrines and Covenants", and "The Pearl of Great Price"... and they are in open contradiction with the doctrines of the Bible, as we discuss in the chapter of Mormons. Even to the Bible, Smith added 125 verses in the New Testament, and changed a total of 1,475 verses in the Bible. So, it is the Bible, but it is not the Bible!... and the final analysis of the Mormons shows that most doctrines of the real Bible are changed: For example, Mormons believe that The Father is one God, Jesus another God, the Spirit another God... three Gods!... and neither one was eternal, the three of them had a beginning, like you and I... and you and I can become a god, just like the Father or Jesus Christ!... and so on... totally contrary to what the real Bible teaches!.
The Moonies: It is even worse. They use the Bible as a Holy Scripture, but to make a mockery out of it: Jesus Christ is a perfect man, but he is not God, he was the bastard offspring of Zechariah and Virgin Mary... For the Moonies, their actual scriptures are the "Divine Principle", and the "Outline of the Principle", of Moon, and the Bible is used for their purposes, to attract Christians, and to make believe that their believes are based on the Bible...
The Jehovah's Witnesses, use the Bible, but as translated by as translated by Knorr, "The World Translation", in which the verses to the deity of Christ, the immortality of the soul, ant the eternal hell are changed, to support the ideas of their founders about Jesus, who is not God, as far as the Witnesses is concerned, the Holy Trinity is seen as a demonic doctrine, the Holy Spirit does not exist...
In the Eastern Religions there have literally "thousands" of Holy Scriptures... each branch or sect adds his own Scripture, as it shown in Hinduism and Buddhism... and as in Christianity, those secondary Scriptures are actually the real ones that rule and regulate the life of the sect and the individuals of that sect.