Protocanonical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to texts or scriptures recognized as authoritative and accepted as part of the official canon from the earliest or original collection ; pertaining to primary sources considered fundamental and standard within a religious or literary tradition ; describing items or works deemed originally canonical and foundational in establishing accepted doctrine
2. Concerning writings or documents admitted as genuine and foundational within an established body of work or doctrine since the beginning ; referring to the earliest accepted set of texts forming the official rules or beliefs in a religious or academic context ; indicating materials acknowledged as original and essential to the formation of an orthodox or accepted collection
3. Associated with the initial set of accepted and authoritative works that form the basis of a canon ; denoting early recognized standards or lists used to define an official series of texts ; characterizing those things that were included as canonical at the inception of a canonical system or tradition

Etymology: "Protocanonical" describes a book of the Bible that was accepted into the canon early on, before the wider canon was settled. The term is a plain compound: the Greek prefix "proto-", meaning "first" or "earliest", joined to "canonical", which comes from the Greek "kanon", a rule or measuring rod, and through it the sense of an authorised list of scriptures. Together they mean something like "belonging to the first or earliest recognised list." The word is used mainly in discussions of the Christian Bible, where it separates the books that were accepted without dispute from those that were debated before being admitted, which were called deuterocanonical. Its meaning rests entirely on that contrast, so a protocanonical book is one whose status was never seriously in doubt.

Synonyms: early canonical, proto-scriptural, foundational, primary, original

Antonyms: noncanonical, apocryphal, secondary