Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 July 14

= July 14 =

Oldest Buddhist Writings
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

I have become interested into Buddhism, because I have met a Buddhist monk on the train. I was wondering, what the oldest Buddhist writings or scriptures are, given that I would like to read some of the original words of Buddha. I have read the article on Buddhism, but was not able to find out which writings are supposed to be the oldest and therefore the most trustworthy.

Thank you for your answers--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:2C68:497:BBE3:7FE5 (talk) 16:47, 14 July 2018 (UTC)
 * According to the article, the "oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered" are: Gandhāran Buddhist texts. Early Buddhist Texts might also be of interest. —2606:A000:1126:4CA:0:98F2:CFF6:1782 (talk) 17:42, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Thank you! The Gandharan texts will do!--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:8CBC:CD6F:A7F5:646E (talk) 12:25, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

Words of Zoroaster aka Zarathustra
Dear All

I was wondering, if there are writings of the original words of Zoroaster aka Zarathustra, the founder of Zoroastrianism. I have only found the Zend-Avesta, which is highly disputed among scholars, because the oldest copies were from the high medieval period and were written thousands of years after the death of Zarathustra. Are there older, more accurate writings which include his words and his teachings?

Thank you for your answers

With kind regards--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:2C68:497:BBE3:7FE5 (talk) 16:56, 14 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Before the advent of printing, books were copied by hand, and in the case of religious texts especially an effort was made to copy them exactly.  Thus, for example, the oldest extant copies of the Hebrew scriptures only date from the ninth century, but the books were written thousands of years before. 86.133.26.235 (talk) 19:00, 14 July 2018 (UTC)}


 * 2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:2C68:497:BBE3:7FE5 -- the Gathas are generally considered to be the oldest part of Zoroastrian scriptures. If the Gathas don't approximate the words of Zoroaster, then there's no known text which does... AnonMoos (talk) 05:14, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

The Gathas are what I was looking for! Thank you very much!--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:8CBC:CD6F:A7F5:646E (talk) 12:27, 15 July 2018 (UTC)