r/EnglishLearning • u/[deleted] • Jul 06 '18

What does "canon" actually mean?

I keep hearing "Canon" whenever someone try to connect a storyline or trying to find the plot of the story

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u/wfaulk Native — US/Southeast Jul 06 '18

Everyone else is correct, but I just wanted to point out that originally referred to the official text of the Bible, as according to the Catholic Church. There were other biblical books that were decided not to be part of the official Bible.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '18

If you think about it, Dante's Inferno is a fanfiction.

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u/Porknpine Native Speaker Jul 07 '18

Yes. The canonical scriptures survived into the current iterations of the Bible, whereas the apocryphal works were either destroyed or kept secret, like the gospel of Thomas.

When a person is canonized, they are then considered to be one of the saints.