[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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