The Canon of Scripture (Belgic Confession 4)
Rev. Angus Stewart
Belgic Confession 4: Canonical Books of the Holy Scriptures
We believe that the Holy Scriptures are contained in two books, namely, the Old and New Testaments, which are canonical, against which nothing can be alleged. These are thus named in the church of God.
The books of the Old Testament are: the five books of Moses, namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the two books of Samuel, the two of the Kings, two books of the Chronicles, commonly called Paralipomenon, the first of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther; Job, the Psalms of David, the three books of Solomon, namely, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs; the four great prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; and the twelve lesser prophets, namely: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Those of the New Testament are the four evangelists, namely: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles; the fourteen epistles of the apostle Paul, namely: one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, one to Philemon, and one to the Hebrews; the seven epistles of the other apostles, namely, one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude; and the Revelation of the apostle John.
Introduction
We could summarize the first four articles of the Belgic Confession in terms of numbers. Belgic Confession 1 teaches especially that God is one in Being. Belgic Confession 2 explains the two means by which we know Him (general and special revelation). Belgic Confession 3 states that the second means of knowing God (special, verbal revelation) was given in two forms: the spoken Word and the written Word (the Bible). Belgic Confession 4 specifies that the second of these (the written Word) comes in two books, the Old Testament and New Testament.
There is a word in the first paragraph of Belgic Confession 4 which needs some explaining. The idea of the word "canonical" is that of a straight rod or standard. The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are the standard for our faith and practice, our doctrine and lifestyle, because they are God's holy and inspired Word.
A clause in paragraph one also needs some comment: "against which nothing can be alleged." This means that no charges of error can be made against the sacred Scriptures, in either the Old Testament or the New Testament, in any of the 66 biblical books or anything in the 66 books (John 10:35).
Historically, many wicked allegations have been made against the God-breathed Scriptures. Marcion, a second-century heretic whom Prof. Hanko calls the "first Bible critic," dismissed all of the Old Testament and most of the New Testament canon, only retaining Luke and ten of Paul's epistles (and not the apostle's three pastoral letters).1 Castellio, a sixteenth-century opponent of Calvin, wrongly viewed the Song of Solomon as an erotic love poem. Even the great Martin Luther erroneously called James a "right strawy epistle." The German Reformer did not see much of Christ or any of his beloved doctrine of justification by faith alone in this letter. He was wrong on this but thankfully he was not followed in this error by the Lutheran churches.
OT Books
Now we turn to the list of the Old Testament books in paragraph two of Belgic Confession 4. First, did you notice that one of the 39 books is not explicitly mentioned? Which one? Lamentations, for it is included with Jeremiah.
Second, which Old Testament books are given the strangest name? Paralipomenon. I & II Chronicles may have been "commonly called" Paralipomenon in the sixteenth century, but they are certainly not commonly called such now! Paralipomenon is from the Greek meaning "left over," and it is used because I & II Chronicles contain supplementary information on the kings of Judah not found in I Samuel – II Kings.
Third, which Old Testament book is listed as a "first" without a second being mentioned? The "first of Ezra," for Nehemiah is a sort of second Ezra.
Fourth, the listing of "the Psalms of David" is not a denial that Asaph (Ps. 73-83), Heman (Ps. 88), Ethan (Ps. 89), Moses (Ps. 90), etc., wrote some of the Psalms. Belgic Confession 4 names the Book of Psalms after the man who penned at least half of them. To this day, we also speak of the Psalms of David as short hand for the book containing all the 150 Psalms, though not all were written by him.
Fifth, "the four great prophets" (or major prophets) and "the twelve lesser prophets" (or minor prophets) refer merely to their length without making an evaluation of the quality of the books.
NT Books
Just one comment on paragraph three on the New Testament books: the Belgic Confession attributes Hebrews to Paul (as do, e.g., the Eastern church, John Owen, Albert Barnes and A. W. Pink). However, Luther reckoned Hebrews was penned by Apollos, and Calvin wrote this about the Belgic Confession and its attribution of Hebrews to Paul:
In your confessional statement, we have not noticed anything which does not agree with the holy oracles of God and the orthodox faith. Therefore, we willingly approve the summary of the doctrine contained in it. However, we would wish the letter to the Hebrews was not attributed to Paul, for we are convinced by strong arguments that the author is someone else.2
God's Word does not state the human penman of Hebrews. Whether Paul wrote this epistle is not a confessional issue. As Reformed Christians, we believe the doctrines taught in the articles of our Belgic Confession, and the doctrine here is that of the canonicity of Hebrews.
Order of Books
The believer should know the 66 books of the Holy Scriptures in their biblical order so that he can find things in the Bible when reading it on his own, in family devotions, at church services, at Bible studies and while witnessing, etc. This is also something believers should teach their children. Moreover, covenant children should be taught the order of the books of the Bible in catechism classes and in Christian schools. There are also songs listing the 66 biblical books in order as an aid to memorization.3
The 39 Old Testament books can be subdivided into five categories of five or twelve. The law or Pentateuch or five books of Moses are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The twelve books of history are Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I & II Samuel, I & II Kings, I & II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. The five books of poetry or wisdom are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. The five major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. The twelve minor prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
The 27 books of the New Testament consist of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), one work on the history of the early church (Acts), Paul's nine epistles to churches (Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and I & II Thessalonians), Paul's four epistles to individuals (I & II Timothy, Titus and Philemon), eight catholic or general epistles (Hebrews, James, I & II Peter, I, II & III John and Jude) and one apocalypse (Revelation).
Personally, I think that the order of our canon is superb, though I could suggest two small improvements (though, given the weight of tradition, there is no possibility of their being adopted by any Bible publisher). First, in the Old Testament, the first nine minor prophets might be better arranged according to their subject: Hosea and Amos (N. Kingdom); Jonah and Nahum (Assyria); Joel, Micah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah (S. Kingdom); Obadiah (Edom). Second, in the New Testament, Jude might be better placed after II Peter and before I John, for Jude is like II Peter and this arrangement would mean that the last four books of the New Testament would all be written by John (I, II & III John and Revelation).
Application
What are we to do with the canon of Scripture? First, we must read and meditate upon it with love, joy and delight, as Psalm 119 repeatedly inculcates (Ps. 119:16, 24, 35, 47-48, 54, 70, 72, 77, 92, 97, 103, 111, 113, 127, 129, 140, 159, 162-163, 167, 174). We should read it from cover to cover and for all it is worth. We should read it believingly, devoutly and prayerfully: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Ps. 119:18). We must teach and encourage our children likewise to read the whole Word of God, so far as they are able (II Tim. 3:15). Remember our Saviour's intercessory prayer: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17).
Second, we must preach it. Our churches must preach (and believe and obey) the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) regarding both doctrine and life. This involves preaching from all the Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, all the 66 books and from the various types of literature, such as law and history; poetry and prophecy; gospels, epistles and apocalypse.
Why? "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (II Tim. 3:16-17). The apostle's words are a solemn injunction to every Christian minister: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine" (II Tim. 4:1-2). Paul specifies one particularly fearful motivation: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (II Tim. 4:3-4). May we and our churches study, confess, submit to and obey all the canonical Scriptures!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
- What is the idea of the biblical "canon"?
- List the 66 biblical books in order.
- Why is reading and preaching the whole Bible important?