Holy Books: Which have you read?

Which have you read?

  • Total voters
    11
Thoreau

Thoreau

Valued Senior Member
As someone who has studied world religions intensively for the past 15 years of my life, and as someone who is currently pursuing another degree in Religious Studies, I always find it facinating to see who else has actually read some of the various Holy Books throughout our many religions.

I've created a poll. I ask that you only check the ones of which you have read the ENTIRETY of - not just a few chapters. I mean front to back, cover to cover, etc.

Since there are tens of thousands of world religions out there, I'll just list some of the basics and their Holy Texts.

Thank you!
 
As for myself, I've read in full the Bible, Torah, Qur'an, and Satanic Bible. I have read sections of the remaining texts on the list, but none in full.
 
Read the bible pretty reguarly while I was christian (around two times front to back), the Qu'ran afterwards. By the way, when you say you read the Torah also, isnt the Torah just the Old testament of the bible?
 
rodereve said:
Read the bible pretty reguarly while I was christian (around two times front to back), the Qu'ran afterwards. By the way, when you say you read the Torah also, isnt the Torah just the Old testament of the bible?
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My apologizies for not clarifying earlier. Technically yes, the Torah are the first five books of the Christian Bible. However, I have become accustomed to the typical Jewish teachings where they also tend to include the Talmud when referring to the Torah. For the sake of the poll, I should have maybe separated the two, or at least have been more precise. Again, my apologies.
 
I can't state that I've read any of the above listed in their complete entirety. But I have touched on parts of most of them.
 
Thoreau said:
As for myself, I've read in full the Bible, Torah, Qur'an, and Satanic Bible. I have read sections of the remaining texts on the list, but none in full.
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You read all the "begats" in the Bible? I mean there's pages and pages of that, it's like reading a phone book!
 
I've read both the whole Old and New Testaments of the New American Bible, including the footnotes.
 
Thoreau said:
As someone who has studied world religions intensively for the past 15 years of my life, and as someone who is currently pursuing another degree in Religious Studies, I always find it facinating to see who else has actually read some of the various Holy Books throughout our many religions.
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I'm interested in academic religious studies too.

I've created a poll. I ask that you only check the ones of which you have read the ENTIRETY of - not just a few chapters. I mean front to back, cover to cover, etc.
Click to expand...

That's the thing. I don't think that I've read any of the writings you listed straight through in their entirety.

I've read large portions of the Bible and the Quran, but never continuously cover-to-cover.

Right now, my interest is very much concentrated on the Pali canon. (I've been reading Piya Tan's sutta studies from Dharmafarer.) With the Pali canon, I wonder whether anyone on earth has ever read it cover-to-cover. (Assuming it had covers. It's a library of books that places like Thai monasteries often have in a bookcase.) They certainly haven't read it in English, since some parts of it are difficult to find in translation. The philosophically very important Kathavatthu only exists in a century old Pali Text Society translation as far as I know (I was recently given an e-copy) and another Abhidhamma book (the Yamaka) might still have no English translation even today (I'm not sure).

The Sutta Pitaka is the part of the Pali canon that non-monastic Buddhists are usually most often interested in reading, but it isn't organized as a chronological narrative or as a continuous doctrinal exposition. Instead, its discourses are arranged in its several books in different ways: according to their length, by how many items of doctrine they address, or very loosely by subject. So people reading the discourses tend to jump around and it's possible to group suttas in different ways and to read them in different orders.

The Quran is organized in order of surah length as well. Islam isn't really my thing, so I'm not sure whether Muslims have traditionally read it straight through or whether they read it more topically.
 
I used to take my little beat up paperback version of the Upanishads to the beach with me. Something about the distant thunderheads over the sapphire blue ocean put me in a hindu frame of mind. Brahman, Shiva, Indra's Net, etc.
 
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Thoreau said:
As someone who has studied world religions intensively for the past 15 years of my life, and as someone who is currently pursuing another degree in Religious Studies, I always find it facinating to see who else has actually read some of the various Holy Books throughout our many religions
Thank you!
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Since this is just a poll and not really a discussion lol I wanted to ask a question. What do you hope to accomplish with a RS degree? Become a religion professor? Priest/pastor? Or was it just for educational purposes to learn about religions.
 
I have no professional goals in regard to why I'm attaining the RS degree. I simply love studying religion, and I'm always looking to learn new facts and opinions on the many facets of religion and spirituality. Professionally, I have a very successful and stable career in a field completely unrelated to religion. I do what I do now because of the money and the time spent in this career. Furthermore, it's also because my first degree was in Mechanical Engineering. But I have always had a passion for studying religion, therefore I figured getting a degree in Religious Studies would be fairly easy and enjoyable.
 
I've been listening to the podcast Thomas and the Bible, where he reads the Bible cover to cover.
 
I read that little KJV, new testament bible. From cover to cover.
I have heard of this satanic bible. But I am curious if you could share what's the contents in "it".
 
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