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In the religions of Christianity, Hinduism and Jainism, there are no similar scriptures; each
has a diffent book, or set of holy books. For Christians, their holy scriptures are the Old Testament, also know and the Jewish
Testament, and the New Testament. The two combined for the Bible. The Old Testament is all the books written before the thime
of Jesus by the Prophets and other holy people, and the New Testament contains the four Gospels written by the evangelists,
the Acts of the Apostles, letters written in the early Church and the book of Revalation.
The Hindu sacred scripturesconsist of t he
Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad-Gita.The four basic Vedic books are the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda.
Each of the Vedic books is divided into four parts. Each contains a section of hymns to the gods (Mantras), a section of ritual
materials (Brahmanas), a section of guidance for hermits (Aranyakas), and a fourth section of philosophical treatises (Upanishads)(Sprunger).
The Bhagavad- Gita is the most cherished and read book in the Hindu religion; it is an epic tale of the knight Arjuna and
his encounter with his Vishnu in his chariot driver, Krishna.Jainism, which ultimately had its roots in Hinduism, does not
share these sacred texts; Jains deny the validity of the Vedas. Instead they have the
Aganas and Siddhantas
as their sacred writings. Both of these are witten in Prakrit, and very few have been translated into modern langueages. Consequently,
the majority of Jains are ignorant of the scriptures of thier religion.
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| The Christian Bible |
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