The
following are some interesting excerpts from Gerrit Dirkmaat, “Lost Scripture
and ‘the Interpolations of Men’: Joseph Smith’s Revelation on the Apocrypha,” in
Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee and Brian Hauglid, eds., Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s
Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity (Salt Lake
City: The University of Utah Press, 2020), pp. 285-303:
How the position taken by D&C 91 differed
from both the Catholic and Protestant Views:
Rather than accept the Apocrypha as scripture
and undertake to correct its errors as he had the Bible, or completely reject
the Apocrypha as had most of the Protestant world, Smith’s revelation took the
unique position of affirming that there were many truths in the book and yet
that it was still somehow different than the other flawed biblical texts. (p.
296)
Early LDS Use of the Apocrypha
Perhaps the greatest evidence of the early
incorporation of Apocryphal teachings into Mormon theology is the very
dedication of the land of Zion itself. In a special conference held there in
August 1831, Sidney Rigdon made an “Exhortation to obedience to the requisition
of Heaven by delivering a charge in the name of the Lord Christ to the Bishop,
rulers & members of the Church planted in their inheritances in the land of
Zion” (Minute Book 2, 4 August 1831, 5, Church History Library [accessible
under minute Books in the Administrative Records series of the online edition
of The Joseph Smith Papers). John
Whitmer explained that Rigdon’s “exhortation to obedience” took this form:
Brother Sidney Rigdon stood up and asked
saying: Do you receive the land for the land of your inheritance[e] with
thankful hearts from the Lord? answer from all we do, Do you pledge yourselves
to keep the law of God on this land which you have never have kept in your own
land? we do. Do you pledge yourselves to see that others of your brethren, who
shall come hither do keep the laws of god? We do. After prayer he arose and
said, I now pronounce this land consecrated and dedicated to the Lord for a possession
and inheritance[e] for the Saints, (in the name of Jesus Christ having
authority form him.) And for all the faithful Servants of the Lord to the remotest
ages of time. Aamen. (John Whitmer, History, 1831-circa 1847, 31-32, in JSP-H2:44)
Rigdon took the text of the pledge he asked
of the assembled members of the church directly from 2 Esdras in the Apocrypha.
There Esdras recounts how the lost ten tribes of Israel, after having been
carried away captive into Assyria, “took this counsel among themselves, that
they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country,
where never mankind dwelt. That they might there keep their statutes, which
they never kept in their own land.” Using the very language of the Apocrypha,
Rigdon admonished these modern-day Israelites to go out from Assyria to their promised
land of Zion and there serve God as they never had before (2 Esdras 13:42-43).
(p. 294)
An Example of a Positive Use of the Apocrypha
by Alexander Campbell
Rigdon may have already had an affinity from
the Apocrypha from years of association with the Christian primitivist movement
led by Alexander Campbell. Campbell did not consider the Apocrypha scripture;
he specifically declared that he “rejected” it. See A Debate on the Roman Catholic Religion between Alexander Campbell and
the Right Reverend John B. Purcell (Cincinnati, OH: J.A. James, 1837), 257.
Nevertheless, his newspaper, the Millennial
Harbinger, for years carried an
unattributed, modified quotation on its masthead from 1 Esdras: “Great is the
truth, and mighty above all things, and will prevail.” The quotation appears to
combine parts of 1 Esdras 1:35 (“great is the truth, and stronger than all
things”) and 1:41 (“Great is Truth, and mighty above all things”). (pp. 294-95
n. 36)
The Importance of the Apocrypha to Joseph
Smith After the Reception of D&C
91
. . . anecdotal evidence suggests that Joseph
Smith still considered the Apocrypha to be an essential part of the Bible.
According to one eye-witness account made years later by Samuel Miles, Smith’s
affinity for the Apocrypha actually influenced the cornerstone ceremony of the
Nauvoo temple in September 1841. Amidst a crowd of hundreds, Smith
ceremoniously placed several sacred writings and some other artifacts of
significance into the temple’s southeast cornerstone. When it came to place a
copy of the Bible into the stone, Joseph balked, because the one on hand did
not contain the Apocrypha. He reportedly explained that he thought it necessary
that the Bible “should be complete—containing the Apocrypha.” Miles continued: “As
there seemed to be none within reach, except large, high-prized family Bibles,
Brother Reynolds Cahoon volunteered to go to his home, which was nearby and cut
of the Apocrypha from his large family Bible, which was accepted and the Bible
thus made complete” (Samuel Price, quoted in “Recollections of the Prophet
Joseph Smith,” The Juvenile Instructor,
15 March 1892, 175. It is possible that Price was recalling the more well-known
cornerstone deposit ceremony of the Nauvoo House, which occurred only a week
later, but William Clayton affirmed in his record of the temple construction
that “a deposit was made in the south-east corner stone of the temple.” William
Clayton, “An Interesting Journal,” The
Juvenile Instructor, 15 February 1886, 4, 60). While this account may be as
apocryphal as the books themselves, the particularity of this seemingly odd
remembrance suggests that there was some discussion or at least mention of the
Apocrypha at the ceremony. Apparently, despite Smith’s growing tendency to
regard the Apocrypha as separate from the Biblical canon, he still saw the
Bible as incomplete without the Apocrypha’s inclusion. (p. 297)
The Case of James C. Brewster and His Apocrypha-Inspired
Revelations
In 1837, church members Zephaniah and Jane
Brewster began to claim that their ten-year-old son James had the gifts of
revelation and prophecy. James had begun using a seer stone to produce revelation
in a manner similar to Smith’s production of the Book of Mormon and other early
revelations. Furthermore, according to Mormon sources dismissive of their
claims, James was also using his stone to search for buried reassure—a venture
reminiscent of Smith’s early employment to help a group of treasure seekers to
dig for a cache of money. Foremost among Brewster’s revelations was what he
called the “lost books” of Esdras, purportedly a translation of books by one of
the authors of the Apocrypha. Brewster claimed that his revelation was one of
the 204 books Esdras has written after receiving forty straight days of
revelation from God. Brewster also contended that Esdras was expressly
forbidden to discuss seventy of those books publicly as they could only be
delivered to “such as be wise among the people” (James C. Brewster, The Words of Righteousness to All Men:
Written from One of the Books of Esdras [. . . ] [Springfield, IL: Ballard
& Roberts, 1842]; 2 Esdras 14:44-46).
In 1841, Zephaniah Brewster attempted to
convince Smith of the validity of his son’s Apocrypha-inspired revelations prior
to their publication. Smith examined Brewster’s writings and prayed about them.
Then, as he noted in his journal, “the Lord told me the book was not true—it was
not of him[.]” This entry continued: “If God ever cal[l]ed me, or spoke by my
mouth, or gave me a revelation he never gave revelations to that Brewster Boy
or any of the Brewster race” (Joseph Smith, Journal, 31 December 1842, in JP.J2:205-6). (pp. 298-99; one can find an online copy of Brewster's book here)