The familiar noun κανων (kanon) describes any straight rod or bar that was used to keep something else straight: staves that marked the boundaries of a field, a weaver's rod, rulers and straight-edges used by masons and carpenters, the horizontal beam of a balance, even the rail of a curtain. Importantly, this word came to be used in the sense of rule or standard: any custom or understanding that was deemed proper in the court of public opinion, became "canon" (same word), and was supposed to be heeded by all as an example to live by. It's used 5 times in the New Testament; see full concordance.

This very important word illustrates an understanding of the difference between the wily edicts of some tyrant and the wisdom of a crowd that, from the seas of trial and error, has distilled crystals for success and prosperity. The revolutionary idea behind the Logos was that it was no tyrant like the gods of old, but rather alike a republican senate, and always representative of the tried wisdom of the larger population. From the Greek idea of Logos came modern science: that ever-evolving body of knowledge of the rules upon which the universe has been found to operate, and which ultimately reflect the intimate nature of the Creator (Romans 1:20, Colossians 2:3, Hebrews 1:3).

And although the Logos is eternal and permanent, the human embodiment of the Logos (John 1:14) started out the way every human starts out, and had to wax against all odds (Luke 2:40, 2:52) in a world that was addicted to folly and tyranny, and hated wisdom and love (John 15:18). The way of Cain may very well have been the beginning of Law (Jude 1:11), and when Jesus began his ministry, he did so in Cana, which obviously relates to our noun κανων (kanon).

More precise, our word κανων (kanon) derives from the noun καννα (kanna) or καννη (kanne), which also means reed, and which doubtlessly derives from the Semitic word קנה (qana), reed, spear-shaft or goad, which was imported into the Greek language basin along with the Hebrew alphabet and a long list of useful terms.

The idea here is that if a tribe wasn't governed by a single tyrant but rather by a counsel of wise men, these men would carry a spear or dagger as mark of their authority: hence the link between a proto-senate (of a proto-republic) and Christ's crown of thorns. In the Indo-European language basin a similar idea existed: a proto-senate was called curia, from κυριος (kurios), spear. And the great river upon which the first law was coded was called Tigris, after the Avestan word tigra, sharp or pointed. Also see our article on βατος (batos), thorns or thornbush.

The verb κεντεω (kenteo) means to prick, goad or spur on. In the classics this verb was used to describe any pricking, including the pricking of a porcupine and the stinging of bees and wasps. But, crucially, this said something about the subsequent dynamic reaction of the person who was stung much rather than the static point of whatever was pricking. Our verb describes a prodding into action. Note that the familiar term κενταυρος (kentauros), centaur, probably also derives from this verb (plus ταυρος, tauros, bull).

The origin of this verb is unclear and it may not even be Indo-European. Here at Abarim Publications we don't know either, of course, but if we were to guess, we would guess that our verb may have something to do with the above and ultimately also derives from the noun קנה (qana).

But whatever our verb's true pedigree, it's not used in the New Testament. From this verb, however, come the following important derivations:

The noun κεντυριων (kenturion), meaning hundred-man or captain of a hundred men, is the Greek transliteration of the Latin word centurio, from centum, meaning a hundred.

This noun obviously has formally nothing to do with the verb κεντεω (kenteo), to prick, or the noun κενταυρος (kentauros), piercing bull (Exodus 21:28), but to any creative Greek speaker, a Roman centurion was a kind of half-man-half-beast whose job was to spur on his men and his subjects while he was at it.

This Latin word is used only by Mark (Mark 15:39, 15:44 and 15:45 only); the other authors used the Greek equivalent εκατονταρχης (hekatontarches).