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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45835
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45835
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

One element of religious texts is the antiquated language. Since the text has been canonised, it has not changed while the language moved on.

If you look at the Book of Esther as an example, it is very much "just a story". God's name isn't mentioned once in it. And the Book of Lamentations is five independent laments for the fall of Jerusalem, grouped together. Song of Songs contains rather bawdy love poetry. Book of Chronicles is a history text. Nowadays it is easy to recognise those texts as a religious text, because their language is old, but nothing indicates to me that they were originally written as such. (In fact, biblical historiography research indicates that they were not originally written as such.)

At the same time, while a text might not have been originally written purposefully as a religious text, it was not canonised without reason. There has to be something in it to make people say "this is important". As an example, in the Book of Esther it is the principle of mutual responsibility: Esther herself is not in danger, but she has a responsibility towards her people to try and save them.

And, since the text has been around for a long time, and was actively being read for a long time, it is reasonable for it to acquire multiple interpretations. Therefore, if you're writing a pseudo-religious text, it could be interesting to make it a text that would lend itself to multiple interpretations, and maybe even to play around with them in your story.

Original score: 4