This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
A passage is a short, citation length excerpt from a scripture or another authoritative text, recorded here for the sake of its own specific wording rather than as a stand in for the larger work it comes from. Genesis 1:1 through 3, a single line of the Tao Te Ching, one passage of the Analects, one stanza of the Havamal, each is quoted because it is directly relevant to some other entry on the atlas, a doctrine it illustrates, an event it describes, a practice it grounds.
This is the smaller counterpart to a Scripture Portion entry, which records a whole named division of a specific text, the chapter rather than the line. A passage entry states which work it is drawn from, which edition or translation is being quoted, and where in the source text it falls, so that a reader who wants the fuller context around a short quotation always has a clear path back to it rather than a line floating free of where it came from.
The atlas links a passage to whatever other entry it supports, a doctrine, an event, a practice, so a reader who wants to know why a particular line was chosen can trace it straight back to the specific claim it is being cited to establish, rather than encountering the quotation on its own with no stated reason for its presence.