Belgic Confession Article 4: "The Canonical Books"

Note: This is a continuation of the Belgic Confession series that I am doing. I intended to be more prompt in writing these posts in a better organized manner all together, but have failed to do so the way I intended. However, if you need to get caught up or would like to review, here are links to the postings on the introduction and the first three articles of which I've written on:

• Introduction to the Belgic Confession
• Belgic Confession Article 1: "The Only God"
• Belgic Confession Article 2: "The Means By Which We Know God"
• Belgic Confession Article 3: "The Written Word of God"

The Belgic Confession Article 3 was a short and concise statement about "The Written Word of God" with huge implications. The next article, Article 4, clarifies what the written Word of God consists of, as far as the books that form the content of the written Word of God. Belgic Confession Article 4 goes like this:

We include in the Holy Scriptures the two volumes of the Old and New Testaments. They are canonical books with which there can be no quarrel at all.

In the church of God the list is as follows:

In the Old Testament,

the five books of Moses--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy;

the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth; 

the two books of Samuel, and two of Kings;

the two books of Chronicles, called Paralipomenon;

the first book of Ezra; Nehemiah, Esther, Job;

the Psalms of David;

the three books of Solomon--Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song;

the four major prophets--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel;

and then the other twelve minor prophets--Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

In the New Testament,

the four Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John;

the Acts of the Apostles;

the fourteen letters of Paul--

to the Romans;

the two letters to the Corinthians;

to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians;

the two letters to the Thessalonians;

the two letters to Timothy;

to Titus, Philemon, and to the Hebrews;

the seven letters of the other apostles--

one of James;

two of Peter;

three of John;

one of Jude;

and the Revelation of the apostle John.

There are a few things that can be noted from this article:

(1) First, I always wondered why Guido de Bres took the time and took the ink to write the list of the Bible books out. What was his purpose? Why was this needed? Didn't everyone in the church and outside the church agree on these books? 

Sadly, this was not the case. Remember that Guido was writing this document to King Philip II to explain and tell him the true Christian doctrine. He wrote this to see that they were ready to obey to the government in all lawful things, but that they would offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their whole bodies to the fire, rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession. Therefore, the listing of the books was extremely important to explain to King Philip II that these were the books that the church and the Holy Spirit recognized as the canon. This also showed the church and those outside the church that they were separate in belief (canonically anyways) from the Roman Catholic church.

(2) Secondly, the line, "the two books of Chronicles, called Paralipomenon" can be confusing. Before reading this article (back in 2010) I had never heard of I and II Chronicles called "Paralipomenon". So what does it mean? Why did de Bres say this? 

Typing "paralipomenon" into dictionary.com and pressing enter; this is what it shows: "an obsolete name for the Old Testament books I Chronicles and II Chronicles which were regarded as supplementary to Kings". So there is some information here; I and II Chronicles were written/recorded as a supplement to the books of I and II Kings.

Also, the Hebrew Bible ends with I and II Chronicles (I can explain later the structure of the Hebrew Bible and why our current (2014) English Bibles are not the same some other time). Seeing it proper to place I and II Chronicles near I and II Kings since both books of Chronicles were a supplement to the books of Kings; therefore, this is why they are placed where they are (this is the short answer). 

Also, the "paralipomenon" is a Greek word meaning "things left on the side" or in other words, "the omitted things". Therefore, as a supplement to Kings and books that 'fill in' what Kings does not include; I and II Chronicles are the omitted things of Kings as a supplement.

In example: I Kings begins with King David being old in age; whereas I Chronicles begins with a genealogy (and includes many more) beginning with the first Adam. And with intermittent stories placed among the genealogies, II Chronicles (36:15-23) ends with the Fall of Jerusalem and God working in the heart of Cyrus, the king of Persia (an amazing act and work indeed!). Also, compare the stories of King Josiah in II Kings 22:1-23:31 with II Chronicles 34:1-36:1. It is shown clearly here how Chronicles is a supplement for Kings.

(3) Third, de Bres doesn't list the book of Lamentations in this article. He does this because it was written by the prophet Jeremiah; therefore it was included in the book of Jeremiah. However, over the years; it was viewed as a totally separate piece of work, thus becoming its own book.

(4) Fourth, de Bres attributes the author of the book of Hebrews to Paul. Now this is a greatly debated topic in the realm of Christianity today. Not only is the author a debated topic, but also the audience as well; though the former is of greater debate.

Church tradition/history attributed this letter to the apostle Paul up until the 1800's when it became debated more widely that Paul was NOT the author of this book. Some have now said that Peter, Barnabas, Apollos, or Luke could have written it. Therefore, scholars are divided over the authorship of this book. 

There is a good amount of evidence in line with Pauline authorship, yet there is a good amount against Pauline authorship. This is where stylistic devices, theological themes, structure of letters, words used, phrases placed together, etc. all come into play. 

Even though Hebrews doesn't explicitly state the author (as well as some other books); we do know that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit, written by a human being and accepted in the Biblical canon as Holy Scriptures. Therefore, this is the comfort that we have and we need to read it, learn from it and study it as much as we can.

Those are the four comments that I wanted to make about this article in the Belgic Confession. God has given His Word to us in 66 books (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament), as a special revelation of who He is, how He works and how He planned the way of salvation to spend with Him for eternity.

Praise God for His Holy Word to us!