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There are two tags, and . Are these the same, and should be merged, or is there a subtle difference between the two?

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  • [scriptures] is now the primarily, and [scripture] is a synonym of it.
    – Nathaniel is protesting
    Dec 3, 2015 at 18:53
  • @Nathaniel Excellent. Do you want to add that comment as an answer, and mark the question as [status-completed] (just for completeness sake)
    – IQAndreas
    Dec 7, 2015 at 4:26
  • I'm not sure that it's necessary, given the age of this question and my observations of how old meta questions like this are handled. We don't have too many of these types of requests marked with status-completed, and I wouldn't be able to add it anyway (not being a moderator).
    – Nathaniel is protesting
    Dec 7, 2015 at 13:50

2 Answers 2

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I agree there should be only one tag. Which one? That will depend on which questions the tag is used for.

I suspect it would be most useful when discussing the canonicity of additional texts in the restorationist movements - if you're talking only about the standard Bible then the bible tag is sufficient. The questions would be along the lines of "What rationale do X have for considering Y to be the scriptures?" So I think I'd lean towards scriptures being the better tag, but not by much.

As it happens scriptures has been used more anyway. But probably both tags could do with a clean up, to remove them from questions where the scriptures aren't the focus, but are used just because a verse was referenced or requested. Just like the bible tag is used too much...

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The tags, as currently used, are synonymous as near as I can tell. In my dialect of English, "scripture" is the correct term. The Bible is scripture. Mark is scripture. James and Jude are scripture. You can't count scripture. Although I suppose the Mormons might tell you there are four scriptures ...

The non-religious use of "scripture" for something reliable is an analogy to the religious use. I think that should never be used by Christians, at least on a site where it is likely to be confused with the real thing.

I suggest "scripture" as the primary term, and marking "scriptures" as a synonym. But only since I doubt if we can convince people not to use the latter.

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  • sure you can count scriptures. There's the Bible, and the Koran... that's two scriptures. You can also count John 3:16 and Genesis 1:1 as two scripture verses, often shortened to "two scriptures."
    – Flimzy
    Jul 18, 2014 at 19:59

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