κανών

κανών — kanṓn

κανών, κανόνος, ὁ (κάννα, Hebrew קָנֶה a cane, reed; Arabic: a reed, and a spear, and a straight stick or staff (cf. Vanicek, Fremdwörter etc., p. 21)), properly, a rod or straight piece of rounded wood to which anything is fastened to keep it straight; used for various purposes (see Passow (or Liddell and Scott), under the word); a measuring rod, rule; a carpenter's line or measuring tape, Schol. on Euripides, Hippolytus, 468; hence, equivalent to τό μέτρον τοῦ πηδηματος (Pollux, Onom. 3, 30, 151), the measure of a leap, as in the Olympic games; accordingly in the N. T.

1. "a definitely bounded or fixed space within the limits of which one's power or influence is confined; the province assigned one; one's sphere of activity": 2Co 10:13; 2Co 10:15 f.

2. Metaphorically, any rule or standard, a principle or law of investigating, judging, living, acting (often so in classical Greek, as τοῦ καλοῦ, Euripides, Hec. 602; ὁροι τῶν ἀγαθῶν καί κανονες, Demosthenes, pro cor., p. 324, 27): Gal 6:16; Php 3:16 Rec. Cf. Credner, Zur Gesch. des Kanons (Hal., 1847), pp. 6ff; (especially Westcott, The Canon of the N. T., Appendix A; briefly in B. D. under the word Canon of Scripture; for examples of later usage see Sophocles' Lexicon, under the word).