Guides: Religious Studies: Find Sacred Texts

Multi-Religion

Internet Sacred Text Archive
Useful site for locating texts for a wide variety of religious traditions.
Pseudepigrapha, Apocrypha and Sacred Writings
Listing of sacred texts for a number of religious traditions but with a focus of Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.
TITUS (Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien)
Includes Indic, Iranian, Anatolian, Semitic and Slavonic religious texts.

Ancient Religions

Corpus of Akkadian Shuila Prayers Online
Egyptian Book of the Dead/Papyrus of Ani
ETANA Core Texts
Texts of the civilizations of the ancient Near East (Egypt, Assyria, Sumeria, Babylon, etc.), includes both primary and secondary texts (Book of the Dead, Encyclopedia Biblica, Handbook of Egyptian Religion).
The Gnostic Society Library
TITUS (Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien)
Includes Indic, Iranian, Anatolian, Semitic and Slavonic religious texts.

Loeb Classical Library
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Thesaurus Linguae Graecae: A Digital Library of Greek Literature
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Greek literature, history, and culture.

The print Sources chrétiennes offers French translations of classical texts; search the Library Catalogue for se: Sources chrétiennes.

Baha'i

Translations of Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Texts

Bible

To find bibles in the Library Catalogue, conduct subject searches using su:. For example:

To find the Old testament, search for: su: "Bible. Old Testament"
To find the New Testament, search for: su: "Bible. New Testament"

Online Resources

List of Bible translations by language (Wikipedia)
The Hebrew Bible
Interlinear Bible
Greek, Hebrew, Interlinear and Transliterated text
Douay-Rheims and Latin Vulgate Bible Online
Includes links to Douay-Rheims and Latin Vulgate.
International Greek New Testament Project
The International Greek New Testament Project exists to produce critical editions of books of the New Testament.
Online Hebrew Interlinear Bible
Sefaria
Open source, not-for-profit project committed to brining digital Jewish texts into the public domain.
The Tanach with transliteration of the Hebrew in parallel
The Tanakh (English)
Pseudepigrapha, Apocrypha and Sacred Writings
Listing of sacred texts for a number of religious traditions but with a focus of Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.

Books and eBooks

Holy Bible Old and New Testament (Revised Standard)
The Jewish Annotated New Testament: NRSV by Amy-Jill Levine (Editor); Marc Z. Brettler (Editor)
Call Number: Birks BS2091.5 A1 2011 O8
The Vulgate Bible: Douay-Rheims translation
Request from network or Interlibrary Loan.
The Bible: Authorized King James Version
Call Number: Birks Reference BS185 1982 N37
Publication Date: 2008
Available in physical format (Birks Reference Collection) and eBook.
Other printings of the King James Bible also available, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the virtual 'Browse the Shelf' feature.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha : New Revised Standard Version
Publication Date: 2010
The New Testament: A Translation by David Bentley Hart
Publication Date: 2023
Second edition.
The New Jerusalem Bible by Henry Wansbrough
Call Number: Birks Reference BS195 J4 1985
Publication Date: 1985
The Contemporary Parallel New Testament by John R. Kohlenberger (Editor)
Call Number: Presbyterian College Library Reference Collection BS2025 1997 K64
Publication Date: 1998
Available for in-library use in the Presbyterian College Library (open to McGill students). For opening hours, go to: https://www.presbyteriancollege.ca/library/
The Jewish Study Bible by Adele Berlin (Editor); Marc Zvi Brettler (Editor)
Publication Date: 2015
Keter Yerushalayim : Tanakh ha-Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Yerushalayim (Hebrew)
Pentateuch with Targum Onkelos, Haphtoroth and Rashi's commentary
Torah, Nev'im, Ketuvim : Tanakh (English and Hebrew)
Call Number: Presbyterian College Library BS715 1996
Available for in-library use in the Presbyterian College Library (open to McGill students). For opening hours, go to: https://www.presbyteriancollege.ca/library/

Buddhism

Online Resources

Buddhist Canons Research Database
Project of the American Institute for Buddhist Studies (AIBS) and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies (CCBS). Can search using Wylie, Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan script
Thesaurus Literaturae Buddhicae (TLB)
Multilingual presentation of Buddhist literature sentence by sentence in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, English, etc. From the University of Oslo.
TITUS (Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien)
Includes Indic, Iranian, Anatolian, Semitic and Slavonic religious texts.
Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist Texts
Compiled by Charles Muller.

Buddhist Digital Resource Center
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Requires users to create a personal account. Use Firefox, Chrome or Safari

Buddhist Digital Archive
Archive of digital images of scanned Buddhist literature from the Buddhist Digital Resource Center. Access to digital texts provided by detailed indices called outlines. Literature can be retrieved by author, title, and subject.

Books and eBooks

To find other versions of the Dhammapada and Buddhist sacred texts held by the McGill Library, search the Library Catalogue for:

su: Tipiṭaka. Suttapiṭaka. Khuddakanikāya. Dhammapada
su: Buddhisdm Sacred books
se: BDK English Tripitaka

Christianity

Bible Studies
by Kristen Howard Last Updated Apr 26, 2024 420 views this year

Early Church

Early Christian Writings: New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Church Fathers
The Anti-Nicene Fathers (ANF)
Codex Sinaiticus

Adventist

Ellen G. White's writings
Search the Library Catalogue for au=White, Ellen G

Anabaptist

Confessions of Faith in the Anabaptist Tradition, 1527-1660
Search the Library Catalogue for su: Anabaptists Doctrines Early works to 1800
Brief Statement of Mennonite Doctrine (1963)
King James Bible

Anglican/Episcopal

Book of Common Prayer (full text version of many different editions)
Many versions of the Book of Common Prayer can be found by searching the Library Catalogue for su: Church of England Liturgy Early works to 1800 (tip: try adding a date limiter on the lefthand side)
Common Worship

Catholic

Codex Iuris Canonici (Latin and German)
Code of Canon Law (English)
Documenta Catholica Omnia
Papal Encyclicals Online
Vatican website (available in multiple languages including English, French, and Latin)
Digital Library of Catholic Reformation

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Book of Mormon (Yale University Press edition)
Book of Mormon (online from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
Find more versions of the Book of Mormon and other doctrine by searching the Library Catalogue for su: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Doctrines
King James Bible

Lutheran

Augsburg Confession: full text in English at Wikiwource
Augsburg Confession: in Latin with parallel English translation
The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church

Shakers

Swedenborgian

Confucianism

Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist Texts
Compiled by Charles Muller.
Chinese Text Project - Confucianism

The Four Books

Editions and translations of The Analects, The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, and Mencius.

The Analects: Conclusions and Conversations of Confucius by Confucius
ISBN: 9780520974715
Publication Date: 2020
The Analects by Confucius; C. C. Tsai (Illustrator); Brian Bruya (Translator)
Publication Date: 2018
Illustrated by bestselling Asian cartoonist C. C. Tsai.
The Analects with Selection from Traditional Commentaries by Confucius; Edward Slingerland (Translator)
Publication Date: 2003
This edition presents Slingerland's translation of the Analects alongside a selection of classic Chinese commentaries that shed light on difficult passages, provide historical and cultural context, and invite the reader to ponder a range of interpretations.
Only available in print.
Confucian Analects, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean by Confucius; James Legge (Editor)
Publication Date: 1971
Entire text of the Analects of Confucius in large, readable characters, and beneath this Legge's full translation, which has been accepted and the definitive, standard English version. Full Chinese text and standard English translation on same page.