Belgic Confession, Article 04: The Canonical Books
This excerpt from Article 4 of the Belgic Confession presents the Reformed churches' authoritative list of biblical canon for both Old and New Testaments, establishing 66 books as Scripture. As a confessional document from the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, it serves as a foundational statement on the scope and authority of God's written Word in the life of the church.
Article 4: The Canonical Books We include in the Holy Scripture 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;...