Hey guys. I'd like to read three of the most important religious books (Bible, Quran and Torah), and compare them. Advices?
Btw, right now I'm reading the 'Epic of Gilgamesh', to have another historic reference.
>>7697743
the god delusion
>>7697743
before you could go to the historic you would need to be able to have direct access to them or at least close understanding on the language. At least if you try to understand the Torah from Jewish point of view the words choice is very important as the relation between the words derivative can and used to highlight a lot when try to explain.
some example would be that name for places tend to be explained and its can play key part from what I know, for example "Shaaraim" means two gates or "Beer sheva" mean 7 wells based on some story that pertain to the name.
also some words can have more obscure understanding or used in the bible with specific context, as well as changes between languages structure can force understanding that is not necessary at all.
also the three religions not necessary comparable and its need to be done with extreme care and deep understanding of some rooted tension and understanding that guide each of them.
also read research around the question you ask and in your research start with specific question as its big field of study.
>>7697811
I'll remember this, thanks.
I'd especially like to focus on two things:
>Historical context, what's real and what's literary fantasy.
>The links between the 3 books. (I know that Christianism and Islam are branches of the Old Judaism)
>>7697831
in what area do you mean real or imaginative, its quite a big question in itself?
And in all honestly I think its a bit naive to separate the two as at least the Torah written in a manner you can't really separate the two in such a manner.(mythic time relations in a lot of cases).
about the link, the same as the first question, and I would add that try to push yourself to the constant feel of shaking ground as its always open to change and you might not have direct access to everything from the start.
>>7697743
You can't just read the Quran.
So like, with the Bible, let's talk about how it's divided into Books:Chapters:Verses --what's in a given book can generally be considered to be related to all the other stuff in that book. Same can be said for chapters and verses. John 3:3 is related to John 3:2 and John 3:4. Much of the time historical context is provided in the book and the like.
In the Quran...think of it as more of a kind of book of quotes/ideas that were just written down as they occurred to someone. Each verse is devoid of historical context. This is why there's so much difference in the different flavors of Islam because Islamic scholars/thinkers have gone through and put the various verses in the context that they believe is correct and follow those implications of that particular interpretation (I forget the Arabic term for this)...for example, the Sunnis follow a very different one of these written by a different guy than what the Shia follow.
Upanishads
Mengzi
Analects
Zhuangzi
Bhagavad Gita
Tao Te Ching
Mahabbarata
>>7697743
Don't yell at me, but aren't the Torah and the Old Testament of The Bible exactly the same??
Please don't hit me
Torah = first five books of tanakh
Tanakh = hebrew bible
Hebrew bible = old testament of Christian bible
If you want to compare Jewish theology and mythos to those of christianity, reading the Torah alone won't get you very far. I'd suggest reading Jewish law codices like the Babylonian Talmud and Maimonaides' Mishneh Torah, as well as the Midrashim.
>>7697961
Depends on which particular Bible you're talking about, but here's a decent discussion
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-the-Torah-and-the-Old-Testament
>>7697961
Don't quote me on this, but I think depending on the variante of Christianity, the Old Testamento can have more books or less books than the Jewish Torah. Also, the Old Testamento is a translation, so its meaning may change and some of the nuances of Hebrew are necessarily lost or changed.
>>7697961
The Torah is just the first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible, which is more or less the Old Testament, what was revealed to Moses. The Talmud and Midrash would be the further revelations not written down by moses but recorded and codified by others after he taught it...
Though Midrash is mostly Rabbinic commentary and not a revealed text itself.
If somebody knows... What's the link between Zoroaster and Jesus Christ?
What's the difference between the King James Bible and other Bibles?
>>7699344
None?
There are some similarites in the sense that they were both wandering prophets who essentially founded a new religion out of older traditions but they lived in completely different areas in completely different times and the religions themselves have very little in common.
>>7699460
Zoroastrism -> Old Judaism -> Christianism ?
You won't understand Christianity nor Judaism just by reading the Bible.
>>7699478
It's difficult to accurately date the beginning of Judaism and about as difficult to date the beginning of Zoroastrianism, or when Zoroaster lived, but to give some ballpark numbers Judaism seems to have developed as a religious tradition in what is now Israel around 1500-1200 BC. Zoroaster lived somewhere in Central Asia/Afghanistan between 1000-600 BC. Zoroastrianism itself is almost certainly a product of earlier Indo-European religions, and in its oldest forms has a lot of similarities with old Indian traditions that would develop into Hinduism. Zoroaster reformed Indo-Iranian religous traditions into a more specific movement that would become Zoroastrianism, but that process would also take several centuries - the kind of Zoroastrianism practiced by modern Parsis or even the Sassanids(the last major nation to have it as state religion) was very different from the early forms of the religion.
There was a period of influence of Zoroastrian ideas on Judaism, but that happened much later, during the Achamenid rule of the Levant (500-330BC). Maybe important to note because I see this mentioned sometimes, but monotheism was not introduced to Judaism by the Persians - Judaism was strictly monotheistic from its inception, while Zoroastrianism has had a long tradition of dualism. Several biblical books were written in the context of Persian rule, but there seem to be few religious elements that were actually adopted into Judaism.
Christianity arose out of Judaism with the teachings of Jesus Christ, and after rapidly expanding in the Middle East it quicly entered a kind of religious/ideological conflict with Zoroastrianism (and Manicheanism), which led to a process of Zoroastrianism becoming a more orthodox religion(Zurvanism) in the early Sassanid period. It became more actively missionary and the Sassanids started repressing Christian practices. In this way, Christianity and Zoroastrianism did kind of influence eachother.
>>7697743
I thought the third book would be the Hindu one, not the torah, because Hindus outnumber jews in the world.
Sounds tedious.
>>7699575
well the gita is cool and all but so many idioms are taken from the KJV OT he may as well go for it
>>7699561
You are a well of wisdom, mate. Religious/historic studies?
