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ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA.



CANON

CANON. The Greek word KO.VU>V means originally a straight rod or pole, and metaphorically what serves to keep a thing upright or straight, a rule. In the New Testament it occurs in Gal. vi. 16 and 2 Cor. x. 13, 15, 16, signifying in the former passage a measure, in the latter, what is measured, a district. There are three opinions as to the origin of its application to the writings used by the church. According to Semler, Baur, and others, the word had originally the sense of list or catalogue the books publicly read in Christian assemblies. Others, as Steiner, suppose that since the Alexandrian grammarians applied it to collections of old Greek authors as models of excellence or classics, it meant classical (canonical) writings. According to a third opinion, the term included from the first the idea of a regulating principle. This is the more probable, because the same idea lies in the New Testa ment use of the noun, and pervades its applications in the language of the early Fathers down to the time of Con- stantine, as Credner has shown.[1] The " KO.VWV of the church " in the Clementine homilies,[2] the " ecclesiastical KavoJv"[3] and "the /cavwv of the truth" in Clement and Irenaeus,[4] the Kavwv of the faith in Polycrates,[5] the regula fidd of Tertullian,[6] and the lilri reyulares of Origen[7] imply a normative principle. Credner s view of KO.VWV as an abbreviation of ypa<f>al KCXVOVOS, equivalent to Scripturce legis in Diocletian s Act,[8] is too artificial, and is unsanctioned by usage.

The two significations of the word are a rule or funda mental principle, and a collection or list of books that form or contain the rule.

The earliest example of its application to a catalogue of the Old or New Testament books occurs in the Latin trans lation of Origen s homily on Joshua, where the original seems to have been xavwr. The word itself is certainly in Amphilochius,[9] as well as in Jerome[10] and Rufinus.[11] As the Latin translation of Origen has canonicus and canoni- zattis, we infer that he used /cavovt/cds, opposed as it is to apocryphus or secret us. The first occurrence of /cai/ortKos is in the 59th canon of the Council of Laodicea, where it is contrasted with iStwTtKos and d/cavovicrTos. Kavovio /xeva, "canonized books," is first used in Athanasius s festal epistle.[12] The kind of rule which the earliest fathers thought the Scriptures to be can only be conjectured ; it is certain that they believed the Old Testament books to be a divine and infallible guide. But the New Testament was not so considered till towards the close of the 2d century, when the conception of a Catholic Church was realized. The collection of writings was not called Scrij> ture, or put on a par with the Old Testament as sacred and inspired, till the time of Theophilus of Antioch (about 180 A.D.) Hence Irena3us applies the epithets divine and perfect to the Scriptures; and Clement of Alexandria calls them inspired.

When distinctions were made among the Biblical writ ings other words were employed, synonymous with /cai/ov;- o/Aeva or Ke/cavovtcr/xeva, such as fvoidOrjKa, wpi.a-fj.era. The canon was thus a catalogue of writings, forming a rule of truth, sacred, divine, revealed by God for the instruction of men. The rule was perfect for its purpose.


The Old Testament Canon.


The individual who first gave public sanction to a portion of the national Jewish literature was Ezra, who laid

the foundation of a canon. He was the leader in restoring the theocracy after the exile, " a ready scribe in the law of Moses, who had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments." The question how far Ezra was also the redactor of the Penta

teuch, or made additions to it, will be discussed in its



  1. ↑ Zur Geschichte des Kanons, pp. 3-68.
  2. ↑ Clement. Horn., ap. Coteler., vol. i. p. 608.
  3. ↑ Stromata, vi. 15, p. 803, ed. Potter.
  4. ↑ Adz: Hares., i. 95.
  5. ↑ Euseb. II. E., v. 24
  6. ↑ Le prescript. Hcereticonim, chs. 12, 13.
  7. ↑ Comment, in Mat. iii. p. 916 ; ed. Delarue.
  8. ↑ Monumenta vetera ad Donatistarum historian pertirientia, ed. Dupin.p. 168.
  9. ↑ 9 At the end of the Iambi ad Selettciim, on the books of the New Testament, he adds, olros aifet/SeVraToj KWVV & eti; TO:* Bfoirvt ve-Tu.r ypatpui.
  10. ↑ Prologus galeatus in ii. Reg.
  11. ↑ Expos, in Symb. Apost., 37, p. 374, ed. Migne.
  12. ↑ After the word is added /ca! irapaSuBty-ra, iritTr(v6ffTa -{ 0/<i e7rai. Opp., vol. i. p. 961, ed. Benedict.
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