Scriptures

The scriptures of a religion are those texts which it considers inspired, sacred, or fundamental. Different religions differ widely in the degree to which they revere various scriptures, from the Qur'an believed in Islam to have been actually dictated to Muhammad by Allah, to the hundreds of texts read by Buddhists, whose authenticity is not thought to be of as much interest as their usefulness.

Arguments about the authenticity of various scriptures and about details of interpretation are often a pretext for schism.

Terms for scriptures of various religions
(This is an informal list, so there may be some overlap of terms here):

Bahá'í Faith

Kitab-i-Aqdas

Buddhism

Tripitaka

Christianity

Bible/Biblical canon

Old Testament

New Testament

- texts used by some Christian groups but not others -

Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha

The Book of Mormon -- (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/Mormons)

The Doctrine and Covenants -- (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/Mormons)

The Pearl of Great Price -- (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/Mormons)

Daoism/Taoism

Tao Teh Ching

DaoZheng

Hinduism

Vedas

Upanishads

Bhagavad Gita

Islam

Qur'an

Hadith

Jainism

Judaism

Tanach/Jewish Scriptures

Torah (First five books of the Tanach)

Talmud

Mishnah

Sikhism

Guru Granth Sahib[?]

---

See also Gnosticism, Ecumenical council