Abrahamic Study Hall · The library of Scripture
Words travel through the centuries.
Knowledge begins with listening.
The Holy Scriptures are the texts that a religious community recognises as sacred and fundamental to its faith. They preserve narratives, prayers, teachings, and questions through which generations of women and men have sought to understand GOD and their own responsibility in the world.
ASH invites you to explore this heritage through texts, translations, and studies. Our journey focuses on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: three great Abrahamic traditions that recognise Abraham as a foundational figure and deserve to be heard in their differences as well as their common ground.
Three traditions, an invitation to knowledge
Choose a collection to reach the introductions and texts available on ASH. Each path preserves the language and context of the tradition to which it belongs.
Judaism
The Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible preserves the memory of the Covenant, the teaching of the Torah, the voice of the Prophets, and the wisdom of the Writings.
The name Tanakh combines the initials of Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim. The collection comprises 24 books, predominantly in Hebrew, with some passages in Aramaic.
Christianity
The Christian Bible
The Old and New Testaments form the collection of Christian Scriptures. The Gospels preserve the testimony to the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Christian canons differ. By the usual count, the Catholic Bible comprises 73 books; Protestant collections and those of the various Orthodox Churches have their own compositions.
Islam
The Qur’an
In Islamic belief, the Qur’an is the Word of GOD revealed in Arabic to the Prophet Muhammad. Its name evokes recitation: a Word to be heard, pondered, and lived.
It is divided into 114 surahs. It recalls the oneness of GOD, justice, and mercy, and offers its own account of figures and events also found in Jewish and Christian traditions.
Bible, canon, interpretation: finding our way through the words
- Bible
- The name goes back to the Greek τὰ βιβλία, “the books”. The term itself suggests a library: works differing in period, language, and literary genre, collected and transmitted by communities of faith.
- Canon
- This is the collection of texts recognised as Scripture by a particular religious community. To understand whether a work is canonical, we must therefore specify: for which tradition?
- Interpretation
- This is the work of seeking to understand a text: its words, context, structure, and meaning. Translations and commentaries support this work and themselves require careful scrutiny.
A useful distinction: in Jewish tradition, the Mishnah and Talmud play a fundamental role without belonging to the Tanakh. In Islam, the Sunnah and hadith collections are distinct from the Qur’an. Placing these resources alongside one another in the same library helps us study their relationships while keeping their different functions clear.
Read with care, grow in humility
A translation makes an encounter between languages and generations possible. Yet it may involve different choices: an ancient word does not always have a perfect equivalent. Returning to the texts, comparing versions, and acknowledging what remains uncertain makes our study more honest.
Listen to the context
Read what comes before and after a passage as well. Ask who is speaking, whom they are addressing, and what situation they are facing. An isolated sentence can lose the meaning it has within the narrative.
Draw closer to the words
Examine the original terms and translation notes, when available. Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Arabic preserve nuances that deserve time and attention.
Distinguish the different levels
A poem, a commandment, and a prophetic vision do not use the same language. Distinguish also between Scripture, the commentary of a tradition, and personal reflection.
Make room for life
Ask what responsibility this reading entrusts to you. Knowledge can become attentive listening, justice, care for those who suffer, and a willingness to correct a mistake of your own.
The desire to know GOD can be accompanied by the humility to acknowledge the limits of our understanding. Asking a sincere question is already a way of taking what we read seriously.
Where should you begin?
You can follow the order of the books or begin with a question that stays with you. These four entry points offer an initial guide.
Broadening our view
The apocryphal writings
Alongside the canonical texts lies a vast heritage of narratives, visions, prayers, and teachings. The works gathered under the name Apocrypha introduce us to other voices in religious history and to the different ways communities have examined their own faith.
Studying a work requires attention to its origins, dating, transmission, and content. Its historical and literary value and its religious authority are related but distinct questions.
Explore the archive of apocryphal writingsBibliography and further reading
References for navigating the texts and canons. The reflections and reading suggestions on this page express ASH’s editorial perspective.
The Hebrew BibleSefaria, Tanakh, index of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. For its structure and the traditional count of 24 books, see also the introduction to the Tanakh on ASH. Resources on rabbinic tradition can be found in the section devoted to Judaism.
The Christian ScripturesCatechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 120: the list of 46 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books according to the usual Catholic count. For an orientation to the collections, see the Christian canon on ASH and the New Testament index.
The Qur’an and Islamic traditionASH, The Qur’an: introduction and index of the 114 surahs; Islamic canon: Qur’an, Sunnah, and hadith. The Qur’anic text and the collections of tradition are presented as distinct resources.
Comparison and non-canonical textsASH, Abrahamic religions and the archive of apocryphal writings. A work’s presence in the study library does not imply that all traditions recognise the same authority in it.
A discovery to share, at every age
KIDZ!
The Bible for children and teenagers.
Great stories, questions without limits.
Courage, friendship, trust, and choices that matter. Discover stories and illustrations that help young readers draw closer to Scripture and recognise the power of goodness in the small things of everyday life.
Open Bible for KIDZ!The ASH Bible for children and teenagersExplore together, as a family or with someone guiding those first steps in reading. There is always room for a new question.
