The Apocrypha Has “Light for the Remnant”


Have We Discovered a Lost Statement of Ellen White? BY MATTHEW J. KORPMAN


For the past few years, Adventist scholars have been examining growing evidence and providing more clarity than ever on Ellen White’s use and endorsement of the Apocrypha. White is known to have received three visions regarding the Apocrypha between 1845-1850. We have her written comments for two of those visions (one from her own pen, and another from a transcript of the words she spoke while in vision). In her vision of September 1849, she described a “hidden book” as the “Word of God” and admonished the assembled Adventists to “bind it to the heart.”1 Four months later, in January 1850, she received another vision and wrote, “I saw that the Apocrypha was the hidden book, and that the wise of these last days should understand it.”2 Among the most recent developments on this topic is


that Adventist scholars have found additional documented evidence that Ellen White continued to quote and draw from the Apocrypha throughout her life.3 One of the more stunning discoveries was a letter by her son William C. White, dated to 1911, in which he acknowledged to another church administrator that “in some of Mother’s old writings she speaks of the apocrypha and says that portions of it were inspired.”4 He showed no reservations about the topic and appeared to consider the documents authentic and representative of his mother’s views, with nothing to suggest she had changed her mind since 1850. Tis article will add to the ongoing conversation by examining


another important discovery: a letter from 1915 contains what might be a quotation of a never-before-seen statement by Ellen White on the topic of the Apocrypha.


A Newly Discovered Letter Tis piece of correspondence, written four years aſter William White’s 1911 letter dealing with the Apocrypha, touches on the same issue.5 In a 1915 letter, Adventist administrator Tyler E. Bowen relates to William White a memory of something Ellen White had written “in the spirit of prophecy.” Bowen thinks “there is a statement somewhere” but acknowledges that he doesn’t quite know how to find it.


Tis recently discovered letter, rather than quoting or


summarizing what we already know from Ellen White’s two manuscripts touching on the issue, actually provides us with a new statement that seems both familiar to surviving documentation and yet also distinct from it. Bowen writes: “If I remember correctly, there is a statement somewhere in the spirit of prophecy that reads something like this: that there is light for the remnant in the Apocrypha. I do not know that I could really find that statement, but I think it has been made.” Bowen follows this statement with an explanation of why he


is interested in her views on the Apocrypha. At the same time as he had decided to read the book of 1 Maccabees in an old Catholic Bible, many Adventists were debating what to do about World War 1 military conscription in Europe. Bowen, noting the potential quandary for Adventists who were conflicted over whether to fight in the military on Sabbath days, saw a potential value in one of the stories contained in this historical book. He thought that 1 Maccabees, one of 14 books published in the original 1611 King James Version of the Bible, might provide a timely application for Adventists. Bowen wrote: “I was interested in reading the book of


Maccabees in an old Catholic Bible which a brother sent me, where it tells about the Jews during an invasion being forced to fight on the Sabbath day. At first they would not resist the army on the Sabbath, but fled to the mountains and hid in caves, etc., not putting forth any attempt to protect themselves on the Sabbath. Te enemy took advantage of this, and finally a man apparently being used at that time to guide the Jews instructed them that they had made a mistake, that they should have defended themselves even on the Sabbath day. Probably this is familiar to you. It was new to me….” In his reply to the letter from Bowen, William White only


briefly mentioned our topic of interest. He wrote: “I thank you for calling my attention to the experience of the Maccabees as recorded in the Apocrypha. I will read it again soon.”6


“Light for the Remnant” Te central question for evaluation is whether one should consider Bowen’s recollection to represent the memory of a previously unknown statement of White’s or, rather, the paraphrasing of two previously known documents (Manuscript 5, 1849, and Manuscript 4, 1850). At first glance, it seems possible that it is a very loose paraphrase. Te key points of the remembered statement certainly line up with the messages documented in our two known manuscripts. Te words penned by Ellen White herself that “the wise of these last days should understand it”


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