Religious text Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Etymology and nomenclature== According to Peter Beal, the term ''scripture'' – derived from ''"scriptura"'' (Latin) – meant "writings [manuscripts] in general" prior to the medieval era, then became "reserved to denote the texts of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible".<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Beal|title=A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology: 1450 to 2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TekTDAAAQBAJ |year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-926544-2|page=367}}</ref> Beyond Christianity, according to the ''Oxford World Encyclopedia'', the term "scripture" has referred to a text accepted to contain the "sacred writings of a religion",<ref>{{cite book|title=The World Encyclopedia|chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199546091.001.0001/acref-9780199546091-e-10395|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-954609-1|chapter=Scriptures|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/worldencyclopedi00oxfo}}</ref> while ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions'' states it refers to a text "having [religious] authority and often collected into an accepted canon".<ref>{{cite book|author=John Bowker|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions|chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192800947.001.0001/acref-9780192800947-e-6484|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280094-7|chapter=Scripture|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780192800947}}</ref> In modern times, this equation of the written word with religious texts is particular to the [[English language]], and is not retained in most other languages, which usually add an adjective like "[[sacred]]" to denote religious texts. Some religious texts are categorized as canonical, some non-canonical, and others extracanonical, semi-canonical, deutero-canonical, pre-canonical or post-canonical.<ref name="McDonaldCharlesworth2012"/> The term "canon" is derived from the Greek word ''"κανών"'', "a cane used as a measuring instrument". It connotes the sense of "measure, standard, norm, rule". In the modern usage, a religious canon refers to a "catalogue of sacred scriptures" that is broadly accepted to "contain and agree with the rule or canon of a particular faith", states Juan Widow.<ref name="Widow2018p22">{{cite book|author=Juan Carlos Ossandón Widow|title=The Origins of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJByDwAAQBAJ |year=2018|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-90-04-38161-2|pages=22–27}}</ref> The related terms such as "non-canonical", "extracanonical", "deuterocanonical" and others presume and are derived from "canon". These derived terms differentiate a corpus of religious texts from the "canonical" literature. At its root, this differentiation reflects the sects and conflicts that developed and branched off over time, the competitive "acceptance" of a common minimum over time and the "rejection" of interpretations, beliefs, rules or practices by one group of another related socio-religious group.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gerbern Oegema|editor=Lee Martin McDonald and James H. Charlesworth|title='Noncanonical' Religious Texts in Early Judaism and Early Christianity |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XYIebgV1_e0C |year=2012|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-567-12419-7|pages=18–23 with footnotes}}</ref> The earliest reference to the term "canon" in the context of "a collection of sacred Scripture" is traceable to the 4th-century CE. The early references, such as the [[Synod of Laodicea]], mention both the terms "canonical" and "non-canonical" in the context of religious texts.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Edmon L.|last1=Gallagher|author-link1=Edmon L. Gallagher|first2=John D.|last2=Meade|title=The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fpg4DwAAQBAJ|year=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-879249-9|pages=xii–xiii}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page