According to Ōno, the Sanshiwu Fo ming jing 三十五佛名經 is an excerpt from the section on the thirty-five Buddhas 三十五佛 in the *Vinayaviniścaya 決定毘尼經 T325 (Upāli-paripṛcchā), which first listed those Buddhas in its section on rites of contrition 懺悔法. The contrition rite with the names of thirty-five Buddhas was so popular, also in India, that the Sanshiwu Fo ming lichan wen 三十五佛名禮懺文 T326 (Upāli-paripṛcchā) was also produced there.
The title Sanshiwu Fo ming jing is listed in CSZJJ, with a note stating that it was excerpted from T325 出決定毘尼經. This scripture was not included in the canon since it was an offshoot text 別生, and was eventually considered as missing 缺本. Ōno points out, however, that this text is preserved in the Za lu 雜錄, a collection of excerpt texts 抄出經 attached to the Korean and Song editions of the Ākāśagarbha Contemplation Sūtra 觀虛空藏菩薩經 T409. He infers that the Sanshiwu Fo ming jing was probably attached to T409 because T409 advocated the chanting of the thirty-five Buddha names for redemption, but did not itself originally present those names. Other excerpts were also added to T409 following the Sanshiwu Fo ming jing.