κανών

kanwvn kanwvn,
kanovno",
oJ (
kavnna, Hebrew hn<q; a cane, reed; Arabic: [?] a reed, and a spear, and a straight stick or staff (cf. Vanicek, Fremdw?rter 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
tov
mevtron
tou'
phdhmato" (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": ,f.2. Metaphorically, any rule or standard, a principle or law of investigating, judging, living, acting (often so in classical Greek, as
tou'
kalou', Euripides, Hec. 602;
oJroi
tw'n
ajgaqw'n
kaiv
kanone", Demosthenes, pro cor., p. 324, 27): ; 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).*