Norm, canon, standard, touchstone, benchmark, yardstick, gauge

Words about the Bible : What measures up?

ver.: 06 May 2008 xml

When used of the Bible, what is the meaning of:
Norm and 'normal', Canon, Instructional,
Standard (with Benchmark, Yardstick, Criterion, and Gauge), Touchstone

Norm

Norm : A 'norm' is something by which other things are measured and judged. When the Bible is called the 'norm', it means that what we think, teach, and do must measure up to the standards of Scripture. A norm helps stop us from getting carried away with ourselves and our supposed wisdom. Many traditions speak of the 'norming norm' or 'norm within the norm' or 'material norm' : the Gospel message of God's forgiving love in Jesus Christ. This means that all the rest of the Bible is measured according to (or is 'normed' by) Christ and the Gospel message. The Bible is the 'norm' because of who stands behind it and whose story it tells. This puts the main focus where it belongs -- Christ, not Moses or David or Paul or John, or even the Bible.

In everyday talk, the term 'normal' doesn't mean 'according to the measure'; it means 'average', 'typical', 'usual', 'everyday', and 'common'....(yawn).... The Bible is decidedly not 'normal' in this sense. It's quite unique and unusual. What it tells us is in many ways very different than what we take in from our 'normal' world. The world and the Bible operate under different norms.
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You can also check out how the dictionary defines 'norm'.

Canon

A related word is 'canon', which is Greek for measuring rod. In our times, the term usually refers to the books of the Bible. The list of measuring stick books are different with different believers : the Catholics and Orthodox have additional First Covenant (OT) books. Jews have several 'layers' of their Scriptural tradition : the five books of Moses come first, then the prophets, the histories, and the writings (such as Job, Psalms and Proverbs). There are also some writings which aren't part of a formal canon and aren't intended to be canon, but are sometimes used to measure things up. The Talmud is not a 'canon', but a resource of continuous discussion of matters of living the life of Jewish faith; even so, the Mishnah has some measuring-stick effects. For creedal Christians, the ecumenical creeds have some measuring-stick uses, but the use is derivative. The creeds are norms only by being a short version of the key truths taught by the canonical Scriptures. Whenever you hear things about what the Bible says about Scripture, remember that the Scriptures Jesus, John, and Paul referred to are "the Law and the Prophets", not the Gospels or Paul's letters, or even many of the Hebrew Writings (though by their time, Psalms and Proverbs were treated as canon by nearly all Jews). To Moslems, the canon is the Qur'an as given to Mohammed, with no other books or measuring rods of authority.
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Instructional

Instructional : It teaches us what God most wants us to know. It enlightens or illuminates the way forward in a world of shadows. The Bible itself has two key things to say about this : Matthew 22:29 and 2 Timothy 3:16. In the Matthew verse, Jesus tells us that if we come to understand Scripture, we will not spend our time on working out the technical details as these Sadducees did. Instead, we'd focus on what God is revealing in Scripture -- in this case, that there is a resurrection, and that resurrecting and restoring is the way God does things. In 2 Timothy, he is being told that through the Scriptures he has known from childhood, he has been given the tools he needs for the task he's about to be given in Chapter 4. Timothy is told that Scripture's really good at such teaching and training. "Reproof" and "correction" refers to the work of Scripture as the 'norm' for instruction. "Teaching" and "training in righteousness" refer to this instructional work of Scripture, so that the believer can tell the difference between the insight given by God and the ear-tickling stuff.
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You can also check the definition of 'instruction' in the dictionary.

Standard

Standard [ < Old French estandard (a place to make a stand or rally the troops; a stronghold), < assumed Frankish standhard- (stand firm, hold fast)] something used for measuring, or for evaluating how good other things are. A standard is chosen because its quality is already known and highly esteemed. The Bible's quality has been established as a standard by thousands of years of use, and by its ability to surprise us and prompt us to change even today. As with the other terms about the Bible's quality level, its being a 'standard' comes not so much by the work itself, or by the church leaders who first called it the standard, but by the One who stands behind it. Other terms with a meaning like 'standard' are 'benchmark', 'yardstick', 'norm', 'gauge', 'criterion', and 'touchstone'.
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You can also check the definitions of 'standard' in the dictionary.

Touchstone

Touchstone : a dark stone (like basalt or jasper) used for figuring out the quality of precious metals. The metal would be drawn across the stone, and the streak would be compared with the streak of a standardized alloy to see if it was at least as good. In the Formula of Concord (Epitome, Rule & Norm, 7), Lutherans called the Bible the touchstone by which all teaching must be recognized and judged. This leads many people to the question, how does my life and thinking streak out on the Bible touchstone?
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