RELI 211 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Mishnah, Rashi, Kabbalah
23 Jan 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Two terms are particularly important to religious historians: Scripture: a writing or collection of writings considered by religious communities to be authoritative sources of teaching and worship. Scripture enjoys special prestige as sacred or holy only because human communities agreed to treat them as such. Because of this, different segments of a larger community may disagree over whether certain texts are scripture or just books. Tradition: that which has been handed down from the past; tradition sustains a text within a religious community long enough for it to be considered scripture. Usually a writing is passed down through several generations before it is considered holy; a particular writing was tradition and passed on as valuable before it became scripture, a book authoritative because it is holy. Once a text is considered scripture it is usually preserved in a fixed manner and can only be altered with great difficulty.
