Editing Bible (section)

===Religious significance===
{{See also|Quran#Significance in Islam|Bhagavad Gita#Composition and significance|Torah#Significance in Judaism}}
Both Judaism and Christianity see the Bible as religiously and intellectually significant.<ref name="Gellar">{{cite book |last1=Geller |first1=Stephen |title=Sacred Enigmas: Literary Religion in the Hebrew Bible |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-79901-6 |pages=abstract |edition=reprint}}</ref> It provides insight into its time and into the composition of the texts, and it represents an important step in the development of thought.<ref name="Gellar"/> It is used in communal worship, recited and memorized, provides personal guidance, a basis for counseling, church doctrine, religious culture (teaching, hymns and worship), and ethical standards.<ref name="Gellar"/><ref name="Banbaji">Banbaji, Amir. "Conflicted Anagoge: The Renewal of Jewish Textuality in Haskalah Rhetoric." Jewish Social Studies 26.2 (2021): 126–169.</ref>{{rp|145}} According to Barton: <blockquote>The Bible is centrally important to both Judaism and Christianity, but not as a holy text out of which entire religious systems can somehow be read. Its contents illuminate the origins of Christianity and Judaism, and provide spiritual classics on which both faiths can draw; but they do not constrain subsequent generations in the way that a written constitution would. They are simply not that kind of thing. They are a repository of writings, both shaping and shaped by the two religions..."{{sfn|Barton|2019|p=4}}</blockquote>

As a result, there are teachings and creeds in Christianity and laws in Judaism that are seen by those religions as derived from the Bible which are not directly in the Bible.{{sfn|Barton|2019| p=3}}

For the Hebrew Bible, canonization is reserved for written texts, while sacralization reaches far back into [[oral tradition]].<ref name="Horsley, Draper, Foley & Kelber 2011">{{cite book |editor1-last=Horsley |editor1-first=Richard A. |editor2-last=Draper |editor2-first=Jonathan A. |editor3-last=Foley |editor3-first=John Miles |editor4-last=Kelber |editor4-first=Werner H. |title=Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark |date=2011 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=978-1-4514-1166-9}}</ref>{{rp| 80 }} When sacred stories, such as those that form the narrative base of the first five books of the Bible, were performed, "not a syllable [could] be changed in order to ensure the magical power of the words to 'presentify' the divine".<ref name="Horsley, Draper, Foley & Kelber 2011"/>{{rp|80}} Inflexibility protected the texts from a changing world.<ref name="Horsley, Draper, Foley & Kelber 2011"/>{{rp|80}} When sacred oral texts began the move to written transmission, commentary began being worked in, but once the text was closed by canonization, commentary needed to remain outside. Commentary still had significance. Sacred written texts were thereafter accompanied by commentary, and such commentary was sometimes written and sometimes orally transmitted, as is the case in the Islamic [[Madrasa]] and the Jewish [[Yeshiva]].<ref name="Horsley, Draper, Foley & Kelber 2011"/>{{rp|81}} Arguing that Torah has had a definitive role in developing Jewish identity from its earliest days, John J. Collins explains that regardless of genetics or land, it has long been true that one could become Jewish by observing the laws in the Torah, and that remains true in the modern day.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=John J. |title=The Invention of Judaism: Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul |date=2017 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-29412-7 |pages=17–19 |edition=reprint}}</ref>

The Christian religion and its sacred book are connected and influence one another, but the significance of the written text has varied throughout history. For Christianity, holiness did not reside in the written text, or in any particular language, it resided in the Christ the text witnessed to. Old Testament scholar [[David M. Carr]] writes that this gave early Christianity a more 'flexible' view of the written texts.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carr |first1=David M. |title=Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-534669-5}}</ref>{{rp|279}} Wilfred Cantwell Smith points out that "in the Islamic system, the Quran fulfills a function comparable to the role... played by the person of Jesus Christ, while a closer counterpart to Christian scriptures are the Islamic [[Hadith]] 'Traditions'."<ref name="Smith 71">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Wilfred Cantwell |title=The Study of Religion and the Study of the Bible |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |date=1971 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=131–140 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1461797 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/jaarel/XXXIX.2.131 |jstor=1461797 |access-date=30 June 2022 |archive-date=30 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630053134/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1461797 |url-status=live |issn=0002-7189|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{rp|133}} For centuries the written text had less significance than the will of the church as represented by the Pope, since the church saw the text as having been created by the church. One cause of the [[Reformation]] was the perceived need to reorient Christianity around its early text as authoritative.<ref>Barrett, Matthew. God's Word Alone – The Authority of Scripture: What the Reformers Taught... and Why It Still Matters. Zondervan Academic, 2016.</ref>{{rp|13}} Some [[Protestantism|Protestant]] churches still focus on the idea of ''[[sola scriptura]]'', which sees scripture as the only legitimate religious authority. Some denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only [[Biblical infallibility|infallible]] source of Christian teaching. Others, though, advance the concept of ''[[prima scriptura]]'' in contrast, meaning scripture primarily or scripture mainly.{{efn|name="WELS"|"The United Methodists see Scripture as the primary source and criterion for Christian doctrine. They emphasize the importance of tradition, experience, and reason for Christian doctrine. Lutherans teach that the Bible is the sole source for Christian doctrine. The truths of Scripture do not need to be authenticated by tradition, human experience, or reason. Scripture is self authenticating and is true in and of itself."<ref name="wels.net">{{cite web |url=http://www.wels.net/what-we-believe/questions-answers/christian/methodist-beliefs |title=Methodist Beliefs: In what ways are Lutherans different from United Methodists?|year=2014 |publisher=Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod |access-date=22 May 2014 |archive-date=22 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140522105449/http://www.wels.net/what-we-believe/questions-answers/christian/methodist-beliefs |url-status=live}}</ref>}}{{efn|name="Humphrey2013"|"historically Anglicans have adopted what could be called a prima Scriptura position." {{harvnb|Humphrey|2013|p=16}}}}

In the 21st century, attitudes towards the significance of the Bible continue to differ. [[Roman Catholics]], [[High Church]] [[Anglicanism|Anglicans]], [[Methodism|Methodists]] and [[Eastern Orthodox]] Christians stress the harmony and importance of both the Bible and [[sacred tradition]] in combination. United Methodists see Scripture as the major factor in Christian doctrine, but they also emphasize the importance of tradition, experience, and reason. Lutherans teach that the Bible is the sole source for Christian doctrine.<ref name="wels.net"/> [[Islamic view of the Bible|Muslims view the Bible]] as an original [[revelation]] from [[God in Islam|God]]; but the Jews and the Christians corrupted it through falsification and alteration (''[[tahrif|Taḥrīf]]''), and therefore the [[Quran]] is revealed by God to the [[Prophets of Islam|Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cuciniello |first=Antonio |date=2021 |title=The Prophetic Figure of Jesus in the Qur’ānic Text |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27119588 |journal=Aevum |volume=95 |issue=2 |page=70 |doi=10.26350/000193_000101 |issn=0001-9593 |jstor=27119588 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The [[Rastafari]] view the Bible as essential to their religion,{{sfn|Price|2009|p=171}} while the [[Unitarian Universalism|Unitarian Universalists]] view it as "one of many important religious texts".{{sfn|Gomes|2009|p=42}}