The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

III. The division of Holy Scripture into the Old and New Testament, and into Protocanonical and Deuterocanonical books, is most appropriate. The Old Testament consists of books written before the coming of Christ, whether they were admitted and received by the Synagogue of the Jews or not. The New Testament coalesces from only those books written after Christ by the Apostles and Disciples; and there is no book that was written while Christ was alive that pertains to the New or Old Testament.

IV. The Hebrew Canon, with various things said by various Fathers, probably contained only twenty-two books, as Jerome holds in his Prologue Galeatus Helmeted Prologue, according to the number of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet; they were divided into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa Holy Writings. The Law contained the Pentateuch of Moses, namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The second part, under the Prophets, comprised eight; that is: 1. Joshua, 2. Judges with Ruth, 3. The two of Samuel, namely the first and second of Kings, 4. The third and fourth of Kings, 5. Isaiah, 6. Jeremiah with the Lamentations, 7. Ezekiel, 8. The twelve books of the minor Prophets. The third part, under the Hagiographa, had nine, namely: 1. Job, 2. The Psalter of David, 3. The Proverbs of Solomon, 4. Ecclesiastes, 5. Song of Songs, 6. Daniel, excluding the prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Children, which are in our Vulgate in chapter 3, and the histories of Susanna, Bel, and the Dragon; 7. Chronicles, 8. Ezra, 9. Esther. And from these the entire Hebrew Canon was completed, with the others excluded from the Canon by the Synagogue, which we, according to the Tridentine Council of Trent catalog, place in the Canon.

V. The Church of Christ recognizes neither more nor fewer Canonical books than those seventy-two which the Council of Trent, session 4, in the decree on Canonical scriptures, proposes. They are: of the Old Testament, the five of Moses—that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the four of Kings, the two of Chronicles, the first and second of Ezra (which is called Nehemiah), Tobit, Judith, Esther, Job, the Davidic Psalter of one hundred and fifty Psalms, Parables Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Isaiah, Jeremiah with Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, the twelve minor Prophets—that is, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi—the two books of Maccabees. Of the New Testament, four