I am always curious what Latter-day Saints have written concerning D&C 91 and the “Apocrypha” (“Deutero-canon” in Catholic circles). The following is from Arthur Wallace’s 1966 book, Evidence in Science and in Religion (I do not agree with everything he writes here; I am just reproducing it for those who, like me, enjoy looking at older treatments of topics by other LDS):
Joseph Smith was told by
revelation that there many true things in the Apocrypha four years after the
Book of Mormon was published. Joseph Smith knew little about the Apocrypha
while translating the Book of Mormon, but note the following resemblance among
the Book of Mormon, the Apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls:
a. They teach claim to be telling
a story that was given to man by revelation and was had among most ancient
prophets from the beginning and this has been transmitted through the righteous
down through all periods of time.
b. They each claim that the
knowledge of the righteous prophets was not shared with the rest of the world.
Those righteous were hid away from the rest of the world.
c. In each, the inspired prophets
wrote their knowledge down in books. Their writings were addressed to future
generations.
d. The subject they each deal with
is the “Big Picture of God’s Plan” for the world from beginning to
end—“eternity to eternity.”
e. They each claim divine
revelation in their own time.
f. They each consider time as
timeless. They speak of things to come to us as if they had already come, as if
future events were present. Another form of this is an example from Nephi, “ .
. . for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and
learning.” (1 Nephi 19:23)
g. In each the center and pivot of
the whole plan of history is the Messiah.
h. In each according to the “plan
of life and salvation which was fixed and determined before the foundation of
the world, the each was made as a place of testing, men being free while here
to choose the way of light or the way of darkness.” This, the
doctrine of free agency or of probation, the “way of life” vs. the “way of
darkness,” is common in the plan as described in these three sources. The Book
of Mormon goes overboard in one place and mentions “light” six times in one
verse (Alma 19:6)
i. Each reference claims that
throughout history men have chosen darkness rather than light, indicating the
general weakness of the human race. Many general apostacies are described in
each of these three reference sources (Book of Mormon, Apocrypha, and Dead Sea Scrolls).
The purpose of the church is each is to work with the wicked; nevertheless, the
plan remains hidden to those who are in darkness. The Bible also reported
general apostacies. One followed Adam, one after Noah, one before Christ, plus
others.
j. Each teaches that the righteous
can expect persecution. Most certainly the same pattern of persecution that was
described in the Book of Mormon followed Joseph Smith and the members of the
Restored Church from 1830 to 1900 A.D.
These ten parallels most likely
are not accidental. Also no one has yet proposed a theory that Joseph Smith
concoted the Book of Mormon in his mind after a study of the Apocrypha.
There is no such evidence. (Arthur Wallace, Evidence in Science and in
Religion [Los Angeles: Arthur Wallace, 1966], 52-53, emphasis in original)
Further Reading
John A. Tvedtnes and Matthew Roper, “Joseph Smith's Use of
the Apocrypha”: Shadow or Reality?
Jared Ludlow, Exploring the Apocrypha from a Latter-day Saint
Perspective (CFI: 2018)
