Sacred Texts & Religion

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian Pantheon Names
Descriptions & other information on the gods of old Egypt.
http://www.vibrani.com/gods.htm


Egyptian Book of the Dead - The Papyrus of Ani; Egyptian Book of the Dead. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Books/Papyrus_Ani.html

Ra and the Serpent Egyptian myth of creation.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/StudTxts/raSerpnt.html




Asian Classic Texts
The Asian Classics Input Project works to preserve disappearing books containing the great ideas of the Eastern half of humanity, and to make these books and ideas accessible to the world at large. Downloadable mainly as zipped text & rtf files. Includes ACIP Release V: World.Wide.Wisdom. Over 200 previously unreleased titles from the classics of traditional Asian philosophy in the Tibetan language.
http://www.asianclassics.org



Baha'i

Bahá'í Sacred Writings and other books, articles etc. To read online, or downloadable as text, rtf or Word documents.
http://www.bahai-library.org

Baha'i Library Online (in English, French & Spanish)
http://bahai-library.com

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas
http://www.ibiblio.org/Bahai/Texts/English/AQD/AQD-4.html


The Kitáb-i-Iqán
http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KI

the Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah in HTML, with a FLASH version also. Both at: http://www.upliftingwords.org/writings/hiddenwords



Buddhism

BuddhaNet These Buddhist texts may be read online with the Adobe Reader or variants thereof. Texts are presently available in English (UK & US variants), French, German, Spanish & Japanese. The texts may also be downloaded as zipped .pdf files to read offline.
http://www.buddhanet.net/ebooks.htm


Buddhist Reading Room Sutras & other content for online reading. In American English. Some texts also available for download as ZIP format archives (IBM / Windows users) or StuffIt format (Macintosh users).
http://www.buddhistreading.com

Online Dharma Libraries
"Authors and/or publishers of the works have granted us permission to make these electronic editions freely available to the public. In the Buddhist tradition, this is the practice of dana, or "freely-offered generosity."…Extensive collection of Buddhist texts for downloading.
http://www.dharmanet.org/files.html

Sacred Texts: Buddhism
In English, for reading online.Includes modern (early 20th century) compilations of the Buddhist Canon, plus texts of Northern & Southern Buddhist schools,Tibetian Buddhism and much else.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud

More Buddhist e-books for online reading.
http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/



Cao Dai
Centre for Studies in Caodaism (Sydney)
Online full text Cao Dai scriptures & books, articles, images,& audio-visuals, in Vietnamese, French & English. Includes information on the history, organization, philosophy and practice of Caodaism. An Australian archive in HTML, thanks to Cong-Tam Dao of the University of Sydney.
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/10190



Christianity

The Holy Bible (King James version) in HTML
http://www.bartleby.com/br/108.html

The NET Bible (New English Translation) a completely new translation of the Bible. Includes many thousands of hyperlinked (clickable) translator's notes (which may include theological opinion). Online in HTML. Courtesy of bible.org.
http://www.bible.org/netbible/index.htm


The Bible, New International Version Online, in individual chapters.
UK version: http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/index.php?action=getVersionInfo&vid=64#booklist/
US version http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/index.php?action=getVersionInfo&vid=31#booklist/
Note usage restrictions as explained at the top of the Biblegateway webpage.

The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, in HTML
http://www.catholicfirst.com/bibledrv.cfm


New American Bible, from United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in HTML
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible



Old & New Testaments of the Bible formatted for eReader (Palm Reader). New Testament as one download. Old Testament is in four parts. King James version.
http://www.ereader.com/free/ebooks


Latin Vulgate Bible, for Palm
This I.8MB .prc file download requires a Palm DOC reader. Find under "L" in the many Bible versions available free at:
http://spiritualworx.com/skw_template.php?page=PalmSoftware.php&fext=prc/

Old and New Testament books in groups, in PilotDoc format, zipped. http://www.antioch.com.sg/edgar/bibledoc.html

New Testament TNIV version, as PDF for Adobe Reader.
http://www.tniv.info/bible/index.php

Bible Downloads for Palm OS, Pocket PC, Smartphone and some Symbian devices A variety of Bible versions, plus reader software, available in English, & Albanian, Arabic, Byzantine Greek, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Romanian, Spanish & Swedish.
http://www.olivetree.com/handheld/free/



The Bible, text search of New International Version, in 19 languages.
http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?version=NIV

The Bible, text search of Revised Standard Version
http://www.hti.umich.edu/r/rsv

The Bible, text search of New American Standard Version
http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?version=NASB



Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Huge collection of significant Christian works. Especially in English, but with some Russian & Chinese e-texts, plus a few in Latin, Greek, French, German, Czech, Italian & Spanish. Many In ThML (Theological Markup Language, an XML variant), or in HTML. Also as online facsimile, plain text, Open eBook, Palm DocBook, or Microsoft Reader formats. Some MP3 audio files also. From Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Missouri.
http://www.ccel.org

Christian Latin - Online versions of Christian Latin texts from Abelard to Thomas à Kempis.
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/christian.html

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1914 edition), for online reading or consultation. Hyperlinked.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen

Some Catholic devotional works formatted for Palm OS and MS Word.
http://www.rosarynmore.com/download.html



Project Wittenberg Works by and about Martin Luther and other Lutherans.
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-home.html

Project Wittenberg's Lutheran Electronic Archive: gives priority to documents written by Luther or about Luther. Documents by other Lutherans and Lutheran churches or organizations are produced to a lesser extent. The majority of the works are in HTML or text format.
http://www.ctsfw.edu/etext


The Walther Library also provides links to a broader range of Protestant and Lutheran works at:
http://www.ctsfw.edu/library/probono.php



Coptic Texts The St. Pachomius Library. In HTML.
http://www.voskrese.info/spl/index.html
Note: For an explanation of the current relationships among the Coptic, Eastern Orthodox and Ethiopian churches see: http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/coptic.htm

Early Christian Writings: New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Church Fathers. In HTML.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com

The Ecole Initiative - a "Hypertext Encyclopedia of Early Church History," up to the Reformation.
http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb



Mormonism (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) The Book of Mormon,
online by chapters in HTML. Downloadable version (.pdb file) for Palm & Windows CE devices also available. Other Mormon e-texts here too.
http://scriptures.lds.org/bm/contents



Gnostic
The Gospel of Thomas The "Scholars' Translation" of the Gospel of Thomas, by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer.
http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/Trans.htm

Gospel of Thomas commentary
http://www.gospelthomas.com

The Gnostic Society Library A comprehensive collection of Gnostic texts online.
http://www.gnosis.org/library.html



Ecclesiastical calendar conversion. Warning - this gets complicated.
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byauth/woolley/calconv.html




Desiderata - Meaning, that which is to be desired. Much concentrated & timeless wisdom here.
http://artandpoetry.com/art/sherrie/desiderata.html



Epic of Gilgamesh Summary of the ancient text, this version written by the oldest-known named human author. Written c. 2000 B.C.
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/GILG.HTM





Hinduism

The Vedas - claimed to be mankind's oldest scriptures, and considered by Hindus to be a direct revelation of God. Read online in HTML. In 7 parts and 21 chapters. English translation by Professor Raimon Panikkar. Click on the Vedic Experience link.
http://www.himalayanacademy.com/books/vedic_experience/VEIndex.html
Huge collection of online HTML Hindu e-books and PDFs.
http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/

Bhagavad-Gita. In audio versions in16 languages, or as HTML in English only.
http://www.bhagavad-gita.org

Dharmic Scriptures. This page at present contains the four Vedas as a zipped Word file for downloading, plus Vedas Exerpts, Vedic Samhitas & Brahmanas Introduction, and the Upanishads, as Word files. Plus over 200 Upanishads and some Puranas as pdfs, with more planned, and the Puranas in English as a zipped file.
http://www.dharmicscriptures.org/scriptures.htm

Upanishads - The Texts “Upanishad” means, “be seated at the feet of the Guru to receive the teaching.“ Available individually online, or downloadable gathered as one PDF file. http://www.naiveinspirations.com/introduction/

Upanishads - Transliteration Key
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/upanishad.html

Dvaita Text Resources Some classic Hindu texts as PDF files in Sanskrit, some with Roman script versions.
http://www.dvaita.net

Hindu Insights Many mini-texts on Hinduism for reading on this award-winning site.
http://www.hinduism.co.za

Ars Floreat
A number of spiritual and sacred texts, including the Bible, the Koran, Plato and some Hindu scriptures, presented in Dutch, from an overall philosophical basis of the Advaita Vedanta tradition of India. In PDF.
http://www.arsfloreat.nl

The Tolerance of Hinduism by Jagdish R. Singh. A novel illustrating precepts and principles of Hinduism. As a PDF.
http://www.jagdishraisingh.com



Islam

The Koran (Qur'an)

The Qur'an, in four side-by-side English translations. Available by chapters for online reading. http://www.quran.org/quran/quranframe.htm

The Koran An electronically scanned version of M. H. Shakir's English translation of the Holy Qur'an, as published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, Inc., in searchable SGML form.
http://etext.virginia.edu/koran.html

The Koran in the original Arabic, downloadable as a full e-reader software program with support for various fonts and font sizes, 2D animations, MP3 audio sounds, search engine, text color, underline color, tags etc, as prepared by Samir Alicehajic of Zagreb, Croatia. English and German translations are included in the "Koran 6.51" version software. Bosnian, Dutch, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese & Turkish translations which may be imported into the above software are also available. An online HTML English Koran translation, plus Hadith (sayings of the Prophet) also feature on this site.
http://www.yildun.com

Holy Qur'an Viewer, version 2.7. Supports Multiple Qur'an Languages, Remote Recitation, Manuscripts. Size: 4.21 MB, an .exe file. Platform: Win95,Win98,WinME,WinNT 4.x,WinXP,Windows2000.
http://www.filesland.com/companies/DivineIslam/1798-download.html

Hadith Viewer Free Multilingual Hadith software as developed by Jamal Al-Nasir. Full Arabic text of Ahadith agreed upon by Imam's Bukhari and Muslim is built into this Hadith Viewer, along with an English translation. English translation of a collection of over 1900 Ahadith compiled by Imam Nawawi also provided. Supports plug-in Hadith collections in different languages.
http://www.2muslims.com/directory/Detailed/225686.shtml

Hadith (Sayings and Traditions) A variety of texts online in HTML, some audio also.
http://www.al-islam.org/links.asp?CatId=70

Stories of the Prophets (as a : 2.65 MB Self Extracting EXE file).
http://www.filesland.com/companies/DivineIslam/5229-download.html

International Islamic Digital Library "An ambitious project to create a centralized repository of knowledge on Islam and the Muslim communities which is authoritative, comprehensible & reliable".
This Malaysian initiative includes books, manuscripts, multimedia, theses, articles & conference papers. Users need to register.
http://www.iidl.net

Islam Denounces Terrorism, Terrorism: The Ritual of the Devil, and other free titles available as online e-books in HTML or download as .pdf files.
http://www.islamdenouncesterrorism.com/

Harun Yahya Islamic books online in HTML, or for PDF and MS Word download, from noted Turkish author Harun Yahya. Many titles available in English here. Other languages accessible from the site. http://www.harunyahya.com/m_book_index.php

NZ Muslim Net Many Muslim e-books in English. Variously as Adobe PDF, Flash, MP3 Audio, HTML & self-contained software programs.
http://www.nzmuslim.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=MostPopular



Shi'ite Encyclopedia (Revised 2001 edition). View online in HTML. Or download chapter by chapter in Text or MS Word, or the entire encyclopedia as a zipped file.
http://www.al-islam.org/encyclopedia

The Tragedy of Al-Zahra' by Ayatollah`Allama Sayyid Ja'far Murtada al-`Amili, translated from the Arabic by Yasin T. al-Jibouri (Al-Zahra' refers to Fatima, only daughter of the prophet Muhammed, who became the wife of the Imam Ali). Online in HTML.
http://almujtaba.com/books/tragedy/

Islamic e-books (currently seven, more are planned) are offered here in English for downloading in PDF format. From the "Islamic Occasions Network".
http://www.ezsoftech.com/islamic/download.asp



Sufism, the Way of the Heart
"The Ways to God are as numerous as the breaths of humankind." -Sufi Tradition.

Sufiportal. Sufi e-books in German and English.
http://sufiportal.de/download.php?s=list&kid=14

Selections from the Diwan of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ABewley/diwan.html

The Hikam of Ibn 'Ata'llah
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ABewley/hikam.html



Jainism
The Jaina Sutras - Akaranga Sutra and Kalpa Sutra, plus a variety of other Jain texts.
Online in plain text and HTML.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jai/index.htm



Judaism

Note: The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh is roughly equivalent to the Christian Old Testament, and has three parts, Torah, Nevi'im & Ketuvim. The Torah, in the narrow sense (the Written Torah) is the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. The Nevi'im are the Prophets - Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets. The Ketuvim is the Writings, including Psalms and Proverbs, Esther and Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Chronicles, Ruth, and the love poetry of Song of Songs. If you take the T (from Torah), the N (from Nevi'im) and the K (from Ketuvim), and put them together in one word, you have TNK. Add some vowels and it becomes the Tanakh.Text versions of the Torah, Nevi'im & Ketuvim are available in English with some useful further information at:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Tanakh.html

Two other English translations, including a useful scholarly version (Kaplan) with hyperlinked translator's notes. Hebrew and Aramaic versions should be available from this site also, http://www.breslov.com/bible/


The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in four HTML language editions - Hebrew, Aramaic, English and parallel Hebrew and English. Zipped version available for download. Book-by-book printer-friendly version and MP3 recordings of the books of the Hebrew Bible also provided, plus The JPS Bible for the Palm Pilot. A Torah encyclopedia as well, in a single ZIP in English, and other Torah resources, all from:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org

Jewish Torah Audio. Hundreds of hours of commentary, stories, poetry etc, all in RealAudio or downloadable audio format, plus some text. Describes itself as "The first world-wide Jewish audio since Mount Sinai".
http://www.613.org

Divrei Torah -- Commentaries. Many sources online - provides links to a huge variety of divrei torah.
http://www.shamash.org/tanach/dvar.shtml#shamash

Seforim e-books
Hundreds of seforim (Hebrew books by rabbis) as Adobe .pdfs.
http://www.hebrewbooks.org

SeforimOnline.org also distribute old and out of print Hebrew books in PDf for free. As well there are some audio shiurim as mp3 files.
http:// www.seforimonline.org



Myths & Legends

Encyclopedia Mythica
http://www.pantheon.org



Proverbs

One Proverb
A collection of illuminating proverbs and sayings from around the world, available in two ways. Firstly, provides random proverbs and sayings online in HTML - click till relevance reaches out to you. Also as free e-books for Palm eReader, MobiPocket and iSilo readers, and (in beta) for iPods.
http://oneproverb.net/frame1.html
http://oneproverb.net/opPDAbook.HTML



Sprituality (various)

Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, to read online in HTML
http://www.spirituality.com/dt/toc_SH.jhtml

Theosophical texts online
A large collection in plain text, including books by Blavatsky, Judge, Tingley, Purucker, and others; introductory manuals on theosophy and material on the world's sacred traditions.
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/tup-onl.htm

Pantheism The religion of nature. Basic beliefs and Belief statement.
http://www.pantheism.net/beliefs.htm

Religion of Expressionism (Chiropractic) A 5.27Mb PDF download requiring the Adobe Reader.
http://www.TriuneOfLife.org

Summum Bonum The return of Amen Ra. Online in HTML, or downloadable as a self-extracting .exe file (instructions on site) for Windows, Macintosh, Palm &Pocket PC. http://www.summum.us/philosophy/book.shtml

The Milk Is White A synthesis of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and the author's own insights. This book is a very large file (almost 3 MB), so if you don't have broadband patience is required - one of the virtues extolled here. In Microsoft Word format; may be opened while online or saved to your hard disk.
http://www.themilkiswhite.com

Spiritwatch Around a dozen free e-books available covering a range of New Age, Psychic and Spiritual subjects and life issues. Reincarnation and karma are major themes. Online in HTML.
http://www.spiritwatch.com/

Ishaya Tradition Offers 5 e-books referring to the Ascension meditation technique of this group, claiming spiritual lineage from the Apostle John. As PDF files for download.
http://www.theishayatradition.org/books/






Shinto
The Kojiki (excerpts), the Nihongi (excerpts), the Yengishiki (Shinto Rituals). PlusThe Book of Tea & other texts.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/



Sikhism
Shri Guru Granth Sahib in text form, the thirty one ragas.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/skh/granth/index.htm

Select writings - IN HTML, English with Sanskrit.
http://www.sikhs.org/transl.htm



Taoism

The Tao Te Ching online, in English, Chinese & German translations.
http://www.religiousworlds.com/taoism/ttc-list.html

Taoism Information Page. Many more Taoist texts online.
http://www.religiousworlds.com/taoism/index.html



Zen/Western Zen

Zen Buddhism A treasury of Zen texts. In html or plain text.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/index.htm

Zen Guide Koans, stories & collected words online. Pithy and provocative. In plain text.
http://www.zenguide.com/zenmedia/index.cfm

The Tao Of Programming & much else
Modern internationalism -from Russia with love, in English, some classic & Modern Zen texts.
http://klein.zen.ru/English

Zen Fun
Sparkling haiku casting those horror messages from your PC's operating system into a more spiritual plane of thought.
http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/resources/zen_fun.html




Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrian Archives. Provide the complete text of the Avesta, the most ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism, as well as many Pahlavi scriptures. It also includes information about the Avestan language, and other useful information for students of Zoroastrian religion.
http://www.avesta.org/avesta.html