[B-Greek] Prevalence of holy books
Anita Clerke
clerke at humanperformance.cc
Sun Feb 17 07:39:17 EST 2008
I have read that the Greeks and Romans did not have sacred or holy
books in relation to their set of beliefs. That there were no books
that they regarded as being revelations from the gods. Rather that
books on their gods, written by their famous writers, where regarded
as informative rather than as authoritative.
Assuming this to be true, then I am interested to know how often does
the concept of 'sacred books' arise, excluding when these words refer
to Jewish or Christian books. Lucian of Samosata writes about the
Christians having 'sacred books' by saying:
Lucian of Samosata's work "The Passing of Peregrinus" has the
following statement on pages 12-13 (paragraph 12), as found in The
Loeb Classical Library, Lucian with an English Translation by AM
Harmon Volume V, 1972:
εῖτα δεῖπωα ποικίλα εἰσεκομίζετο
και λόγοι ἱεροὶ αὐτῶν ἐλἐγοντο,
και ὁ βέλτιστος Περεγρῖνος -....
EITA DEIPOA POIKILA EISEKOMIZETA KAI LOGOI hIEROI AUTON ELEGONTO,
KAIN BELTISTOS PEREGRINOS
Then elaborate meals were brought in [to the prison where Peregrinus
was interred], and sacred books of theirs were read aloud, and
excellent Peregrinus -....
Could someone please tell me if this expression, LOGOI hIEROI (sacred
books) is ever used in greek sources, to refer to sacred books other
than Christian or Jewish ones?
I would also appreciate it if the phrase LOGOI hAGION (holy books)
could also be searched. Please forgive me if I have made a blunder in
rendering hagios incorrectly here when it is applied to books!
I am interested in the period up to and including the fourth century AD.
Regards
Jonathan Clerke
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