Scripture
Scripture
noun
(Middle
English, from Late Latin scriptura,
from Latin, act or product of writing, from scriptus
)
1):
capitalized : the
books of the Bible —often used in plural
2):
often capitalized : a
passage from the Bible
3):
a sacred book of a religion
4):
something written
Scripture is spiritual lore after it has been written down. From generation to generation, since prehistoric times, people have passed on the spiritual wisdom they have learned.
The custodians of this
spiritual wisdom
have been the elders and the priests, priestesses
and seers. This wisdom contains
legends, heroic tales, myths,
personal
revelations, ceremonies, spells and
incantations, hymns to the gods, moral codes and practical techniques.
Before the development of writing, this spiritual heritage was transmitted orally. Even
afterwards,
many cultures preferred to preserve their sacred learning
by oral transmission.
Scripture documents an individual's experiences with God. As inspiring as the text may be, reading it is not the same as experiencing divinity firsthand. But it is the scripture that moves each of us to seek our own divine experience.
Attitudes toward scriptures vary from a deep respect for the treasured
wisdom of the past to bibliolatry
- the actual adoration and worship of
a book.
Whether of not scripture is direct divine revelation,
that
claim is
made for the Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian and
Islamic scriptures.
The Jewish scripture is called
the
Tanakh,
written at
different times from about 1200 BC to
165 BC
.
The first five books are
said to have been written by Moses and are called the Pentateuch. Then there
is the
Midrash, an ancient commentary on the
Hebrew scriptures and attached to the biblical text. There
is also the
Talmud,
the body of Jewish civil and ceremonial
law and legend comprising the
Mishnah
and the
Gemara. The
Babylonian
Talmud
dates from the 5th century and
The Jerusalem
Talmud
sometime later.
The
Zohar is
the basic text of Kabbalahism. It is a mystical
commentary on the Torah, written in Aramaic during the middle ages.
The Quran is the primary scripture of Islam, believed to be the
final revelation of God through Mohammed in the seventh century.
The earliest sacred books of India were
the
Rik, Yajar, and Sama Vedas,
"the
Triple Veda". The ten books
of the
Rig Veda
contain more than a thousand hymns used in
connection with the sacrifices.
The
Sama Veda is
a
collection of the many melodies to which the hymns were chanted.
The
Yajur Veda
was added later.
Within it are
gathered 730 magick spells.
Hindu sacred books are
deemed revelation as"seen"
by the
ancient
rishis
and
handed down word by word, syllable by syllable through a long line of
teachers. The later
Tantric
literature is the religious expression of
a
pre-Aryan
culture
devoted to the
mother goddesses. In addition to philosophic teaching, instruction in
conduct and ceremonials, they are
primarily concerned with magick techniques and yoga
The sacred book of the Sikhs, the Adi-Granth, is a collection of the writings of the first five gurus beginning with Nanak in the 15th century It includes hymns, prayers, theology and religious teaching.
The Buddhist teachings were
transmitted orally for many centuries and reduced to writing toward the
close of the first century BC.
The canon of early Buddhism is made up of three books called
Tripitaka (the
three
baskets). One “basket”
includes hundreds of
doctrinal
discourses.
The
second expounds and explains the discipline for
monks, and the third - a late addition, is composed of discussions of
doctrinal, philosophical and psychological themes.
The Chinese sacred books make no claim
to divine inspiration, but
draw their
authority from the wisdom of their great sages
and the experience associated with their names.
The texts fall into two groups, the Five Classics and the Four
Books. The
classics include the
I Ching,
or Book of Changes, developed from the ancient technique
ofdivination into moral and political essays
The Japanese books are presented as
history reaching back to the age of the gods.
‘
The writings that have come down to us from Egypt and Babylonia are
weighted with ritual magick.
They consist of old myths, spells and incantations, prayers,
hymns to the gods, ritual on behalf of the dead, festival songs,
lamentations, moral tales and proverbial wisdom.
Christian scripture falls into two divisions, the Old Testament and the
New Testament. The Old Testament is primarily the Jewish The New Testament was written between 70 AD and 200 AD, and has 27
books, There is disagreement about the
Apocrypha,
11 -14 books written between 400 BC and 50 BC, which are regarded with
varying levels of authority.
Unlike most other religions,
the New Age possesses no central scriptures. Practicing a religion that
is really a disparate and informal network, New Age
practitioners - called New Agers - freely choose from a
variety of options to guide them in their spiritual development.
Though no text occupies a
central position in the New Age canon, Helen Schucman's channeled book A Course in
Miracles (1975) comes close.
The narrator of the text
assumes the identity
Christ
and discusses traditional Christian ideas
. A quick perusal of the
Manual for Teachers
will demonstrate that the definitions of
terms as found in
A Course in Miracles
are not
those
of
traditional
Christianity.
Christian terms are given adeft twist in order to bring
the reader
to a new understanding.
There are many who must be reached through words,
being as yet unable to hear in silence. The teacher of god must,
however, learn to
use words in a new way.
-
Manual for Teachers
The book opens with these thoughts:
This is a course in miracles.
It is a required course.
Only the time you take it
is voluntary.
This course can be summed up very simply in this way:
Nothing real can be
threatened.
The heart of this
message is that each
person is part of
Christ, the universe
is one, and evil is a misperception
Another book of great influence in
the early New Age Movement was The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi H. Dowling published in 1908.
All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
-
2 Timothy
3:16-17
Many
New Agers who agree with this and say that it is only
through inspiration that anything of value is to be gained from
scripture