Hindu texts Prior to the start of the common era, the Hindu texts were composed orally, then memorized and transmitted orally, from one generation to next, for more than a millennia before they were written down into manuscripts. This verbal tradition of preserving and transmitting Hindu texts, from one generation to next, continued into the modern era. The Vedas are a large body of Hindu texts originating in ancient India, with its Samhita and Brahmanas complete before about 800 BCE. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit hymns, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. Hindus consider
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (H. L. Ginsberg) II. Legal Texts: Mesopotamia and Asia Minor; Egyptian and Hittite Treaties; Hittite Instructions (Albrecht Goetze); Documents from the Practice of Law III. Historical Texts: Egyptian (John A. Wilson); Babylonian and Assyrian (A. Leo Oppenheim); Hittite (Albrecht Goetze); Palestinian Inscriptions (W. F. Albright) Also: Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament edited by James B. Pritchard (1st ed. 1950, 2nd ed.1955, 3rd ed. 1969} is an anthology of important historical, legal, mythological, liturgical, and secular texts from the ancient Near East. In spite of the name, the