Religious text

They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and laws, ethical conduct, spiritual aspirations, and admonitions for fostering a religious community.

[1][2][3] According to Peter Beal, the term scripture – derived from scriptura (Latin) – meant "writings [manuscripts] in general" prior to the medieval era, and was then "reserved to denote the texts of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible".

[4] 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",[5] while The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions states it refers to a text "having [religious] authority and often collected into an accepted canon".

[10] One of the oldest known religious texts is the Kesh Temple Hymn of ancient Sumer,[11][12] a set of inscribed clay tablets which scholars typically date around 2600 BCE.

[13] The Epic of Gilgamesh from Sumer, although only considered by some scholars as a religious text, has origins as early as 2150 BCE,[14] and stands as one of the earliest literary works that includes various mythological figures and themes of interaction with the divine.

Some religious texts are accepted or categorized as canonical, some non-canonical, and others extracanonical, semi-canonical, deutero-canonical, pre-canonical, or post-canonical.