[B-Greek] Prevalence of holy books

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sun Feb 17 13:32:19 EST 2008


On Feb 17, 2008, at 7:39 AM, Anita Clerke wrote:

> 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
should be δεῖπνα
>
> και λόγοι ἱεροὶ αὐτῶν ἐλἐγοντο,
> και ὁ βέλτιστος Περεγρῖνος -....
> EITA DEIPOA POIKILA EISEKOMIZETA KAI LOGOI hIEROI AUTON ELEGONTO,
should be DEIPNA ... EISEKOMIZETO
>
> 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?

It is used in the sense of a doctrinal formulation -- and where I've  
seen it, it's used of a myth, myths, or a doctrinal formulation of a  
mystery cult. I have not seen it used of Christian or Jewish books at  
all.

>
>
> I would also appreciate it if the phrase  LOGOI hAGION (holy books)

Is this meant to be LOGOI hAGIWN? or LOGOI hAGIOI -- for my part, I  
don't think I've ever seen that phrase.
>
> 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.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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