prayers. In Christianity, Bible readings are central
to Protestant life and worship, and the Roman
Catholic Mass includes a Liturgy of the Word,
which consists of readings from the Old and
New Testaments prior to the priest’s sermon and
celebration of the Eucharist. Incorporating holy
books into worship helps communities maintain
their meaning through the generations.
Another way in which holy books are shaped
by religious communities is through canoniza-
tion, the process whereby religious writings are
formally selected, organized, and given authority.
When religious authorities establish a scriptural
canon, its contents usually become fixed. They
cannot be changed or removed, and new material
cannot be added. A canon of holy writings can
be elaborated only through traditions of com-
mentary and interpretation. Most Bible scholars
maintain that the Hebrew texts of the Torah had
been fixed by Palestinian rabbis by the end of the
first century c.e., while the Talmud, sometimes
called a second Torah, was fixed later in the sixth
or seventh century c.e. by the rabbis of Babylonia
(Iraq). Officials of the Christian church fixed the
New Testament canon by the end of the fourth
century. Islamic studies scholars generally agree
that the Quran achieved its canonical form dur-
ing the reign of the caliph Uthman ibn aFFan (r.
644–656), who commanded that variant copies be
collected into a single official version.
In addition to being attributed to a divine source
and having a fixed canonical text, other factors
have contributed to giving a holy book its holiness
or sacrality. One is the assertion that it came down
from heaven. This belief is most clearly expressed
in relation to the Quran, which is thought to have
descended with angels on the night oF destiny
(Q 97) from an archetypal book (Q 43:4 “mother
of the book,” and Q 85:22 “preserved tablet”) in
the seventh heaven to the lowest heaven, from
which gabriel brought it to Muhammad. The
heavenly origin of scripture is often connected to
the notion that even though revealed in history, it
is in some sense ancient or primordial. Rabbinic
commentaries assert that God consulted the Torah
when he created the world. In Christianity, JesUs
is the “word” (logos) that existed in the begin-
ning and then became flesh (John 1). According
to the influential ashari school of Islamic kalam
(dialectical theology), the Quran is the uncreated
speech of God and is coeternal with him. Another
important aspect of a book’s holiness involves
the belief that the language in which it is written
itself is sacred, and therefore the scripture must be
copied and recited according to precise rules. This
is especially the case with the Hebrew language in
Judaism and the Arabic language in Islam. On this
basis, conservative Muslims also maintain that the
Quran should not even be translated, because that
would corrupt and distort God’s word. Moreover,
anyone who even touches the Quran should be in
a condition of ritual purity.
The identification of holy books with commu-
nities is expressly recognized in Islam. The Quran
declares that every community has a prophet who
conveys God’s word (Q 10:47). It commands its
readers and listeners to declare, “We believe in
God and what was revealed to us, to Abraham,
Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes [of Joseph
and his brothers], and to Moses and Jesus, and
what was given to the prophets by their lord. We
do not make any differentiation between them
and we all submit to him” (Q 2:136). It therefore
associates Jews, the Children of Israel, with the
Torah of Moses and Christians with the gospel of
Jesus. Jews and Christians are known collectively
as people oF the book (ahl al-kitab), or recipients
of sacred revelations from God. In the Quranic
view, however, these communities ignored or cor-
rupted the books they received, as evidenced in
their failure to recognize Muhammad as a prophet
and the Christian doctrine of the divinity of Jesus,
which contradicted the quranic assertion of God’s
absolute oneness and transcendence (for exam-
ple, Q 5:12–19). This made them disbelievers,
although the Quran also recognizes the common
ground they share with Muslims for also being
recipients of a holy book.K 308 holy books