Note 199 — Chapter VIII · The Origin of the Old Testament Canon of Scripture

With the Greek word Kanôn (Canon) compare the Hebrew qāneh, a “reed,” which is also used in the sense of a “measuring rod” (Ezek. xlii. 16-19; cp. Judith xiii. 6, where the Greek word is used for the “rail” of a bed). Originally the word in Greek meant a “carpenter’s rule,” and had nothing to do with the books of Scripture. In its technical sense it is Christian, being thus used for the first time, so far as is known, about the middle of the fourth century A.D.; the fifty-ninth canon of the council of Laodicæa (about A.D. 360) speaks of “canonical books” as opposed to uncanonical. It is a still later usage, so far as our present knowledge goes, which applies the term Canon to the whole collection of biblical books. What the original idea was in using the expression in reference to the books of the Bible is uncertain, but probably it was that of “norm” or “rule” (cp. Gal. vi. 16; 2 Cor. x. 13); just as “canonical action” (1 Ep. of Clement vii. 2) was according to the Christian norm, so books judged by their contents, authorship, and history, were declared to be according to the Christian norm, and therefore “canonical”; cp. the expressions “rule (or canon) of truth,” “rule (or canon) of faith,” used in the early Church. It is probable that the adjective “canonical” preceded the use of the noun “Canon” in its technical sense.