How We Got the Bible · Page 1 of 6
What 'canon' means
A measuring word, before it is a list: what the church did when it recognized the books, and what it did not do.
Canon is a measuring word before it is anything else. The Greek word kanon is a straight rod used as a ruler, and so a rule or standard that other things are measured by. Paul uses the word when he blesses everyone who will walk by this rule.
Peace and mercy to all who walk by this rule, even to the Israel of God.
Galatians 6:16 (BSB)
A list that measures
The canon of Scripture is the list of books the churches recognized as that rule: the standard for what Christians believe and how they live. Two words in that sentence carry the whole section. The first is recognized. A ruler does not make the cloth the length it is by measuring it; it reports the length. In the same way the churches did not give the books their authority. They identified, over time and sometimes over argument, which books carried the authority of God already.
The faith itself is described the same way by Jude: not manufactured by the church, but entrusted to it, handed over once for all.
Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.
Jude 1:3 (BSB)
The second word is God. Jesus spoke of Scripture as a given thing that stands on its own, whether or not anyone has measured it yet:
If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken—
John 10:35 (BSB)
So this section tells a recognition story, not an invention story. It has dates, names and documents, and the sources for every claim are named at the foot of each page, because the honest way to answer the question 'who decided?' is to show the evidence and let it carry the weight.
Sources
- Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
- Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament (1997)
Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.