📖 Biblical Definition
The Canon of Scripture is the recognized list of books that are inspired Scripture, distinguished from the Apocrypha and other religious literature. Protestant canon: 39 Old Testament + 27 New Testament = 66 books. Catholic canon: adds 7 Old Testament books (the Deuterocanon) and additional sections. Eastern Orthodox: somewhat broader. The Christian church received the New Testament canon by AD 367 (Athanasius's 39th Festal Letter listing the 27).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Greek kanon, measuring rod.) The recognized list of books that are inspired Scripture.
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Old Testament canon: closed in some form by the time of Christ; debated extensively in Christian history regarding the Apocrypha (Catholic Council of Trent affirmed; Reformers rejected as not inspired but useful).
New Testament canon: 27 books; recognized by gradual consensus. Athanasius's 39th Festal Letter (367) is the first known list of exactly the 27. Council of Carthage (397) ratified.
📖 Key Scripture
2 Timothy 3:16 — "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
2 Peter 1:21 — "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
2 Peter 3:16 — "As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures."
Revelation 22:18 — "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern challenges to canon (Da Vinci Code-type popularizers; non-canonical ‘gospels’) often imagine the canon was politically decided centuries late; the historical record shows the early church recognized rather than created the canon.
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The early church did not vote books into the canon; it recognized books that bore apostolic origin, doctrinal consistency, and widespread reception. The criteria filtered out apocryphal gospels (Thomas, Peter, Mary) that were known and rejected long before any council met.
2 Peter 3:16 is striking: Peter calls Paul's letters scripture within the apostolic generation. The category ‘Christian Scripture’ was already operative within the New Testament itself; later church recognition was not creation but identification.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek kanôn; measuring rod, standard, rule.
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Greek kanôn — rule, standard, list; from a Semitic loanword for a reed used as a measuring rod.
Note: canon in this sense distinct from canon meaning ecclesiastical law (also Greek-derived).
Usage
"The early church recognized; it did not create."
"Apostolic origin, doctrinal consistency, widespread reception."
"Peter calls Paul's letters Scripture within the apostolic generation."