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It is now recognized that the earliest Hebrew Scriptures were transmitted for hundreds of years before being committed to writing, and that even when the writing process began, about the time of King Solomon in the 10th century  BCE, the living tradition continued in prophecy and psalm until collections of these were made at the time of the Exile in Babylon, and books (the section known as ‘The Writings’) were directly written down. This period, from the initiation of the oral tradition to the point when it was written down, is very short compared with the Hindu Scriptures, composed in a sacred language, Sanskrit, and handed down with remarkably little deviation from generation to generation of Brahmin priests.
The point when tradition becomes scripture is clearly a landmark in the history of a religion. The point of scripture is that the original revelation is preserved for all time, giving a norm by which conduct and teaching can be judged. In the early Christian Church, this was not initially deemed necessary because the world was expected to end imminently, and it was only when the eye witnesses of Jesus\' life and resurrection began to die that oral teaching was set down definitely for the worship and education for the second generation. The Vedas, the oldest Hindu scriptures, were set down to ensure that rites were correctly performed and the gods propitiated; later when sacrifices alone failed to satisfy the human spirit, the Upanisads record the quest for truth.
If the reason for scripture varies from one religion to another, so does the decree of authority vested in it, especially in relation to tradition and interpretation. But always at some point a canon (Greek, ‘rule’, ‘measure’) is established which permits neither of addition nor subtraction to the collection. EMJ RM |
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