ACADEMIA Letters

Endorsing the Septuagint: Ellen White and Her Later

Views of the Apocrypha
Matthew Korpman, La Sierra University

1. Introduction
The topic of Ellen White and Seventh-day Adventism’s relationship to the Apocrypha has been
steadily growing since 1987 when the first study on the issue appeared (Graybill 1987). Since
that time, the last few years have seen an explosion of research hyper-focused on exploring this
forgotten Adventist heritage (Fortin 2002; Casebolt 2018; Korpman 2018, 2019, 2021). This
has been in-part due to the 2014 release of a previously unpublished vision of Ellen White
in which she claimed that the Apocrypha was the “Word of God” (White 1849, “Remarks in
Vision”). The results of this research have demonstrated most recently that White not only
quoted from passages in the Apocrypha when writing her early visions, a fact agreed on by
previous studies (Graybill 1987, 1994), but also throughout her lifetime (Korpman 2020). The
question of what these continued allusions and quotations mean for reconstructing her later
beliefs about the Apocrypha has remained unsettled.
The historical background for White’s use of the Apocrypha, exploring the often over-
looked positive reception that these deuterocanonical works received from Protestants, has
been explored in-depth elsewhere (Korpman 2021). However, a short comment by Graybill
in his first study is helpful in contextualizing the younger Ellen White.

Back in the 1830s and 40s, however, many Bibles containing the Apocrypha were
still in circulation. Up until 1827, Bibles distributed by the American Bible Soci-
ety often contained the Apocrypha. In fact, the huge Bible in the Harmon family

Academia Letters, April 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Matthew Korpman, mkorpman@lasierra.edu

Citation: Korpman, M. (2022). Endorsing the Septuagint: Ellen White and Her Later Views of the Apocrypha.
Academia Letters, Article 5126.

1
 home, which the youthful Ellen held aloft in vision, contained the Apocrypha
printed in smaller type between the Testaments. (Graybill 1987:26)

It has been cautiously noted in previous studies that Ellen White’s explicit endorsements
of the Apocrypha only provide clarity as they relate to her early adulthood (Graybill 1994:11;
Korpman 2020:143). Her discussions about the Apocrypha span two visions from 1849 to
1850 (a period of less than a year).

(Taking the large Bible containing the apocrypha:) Pure and undefiled…The
Word of God, take it…bind it long upon thine heart, pure and unadulterated…Thy
word, thy word, thy word, a part of it is burned unadulterated, a part of the hidden
book, a part of it is burned (the apocrypha). Those that shall despitefully tread
[treat?] that remnant would think that they are doing God service. Why? because
they are led captive by Satan at his will. Hidden book, it is cast out. Bind it to
the heart…bind it, bind it, bind it…let not its pages be closed, read it carefully.
(White 1849)

I saw that the Apocrypha was the hidden book, and that the wise of these last
days should understand it. (White 1850)

Despite her later silence on the topic, White’s continued usage of the Apocrypha, docu-
mented in recent studies, indicates that she did not come to reject the works in her later life
(Korpman 2020:143). For example, her continued references to Ezra as a prophet (1862:37;
1899:273), a detail unsupported except by the apocryphal work of 2 Esdras, are certainly in-
dications that her view of their inspiration had not changed as she grew older. None the less,
there is one instance from her later ministry which might provide some further clarification
on this issue, indicating that her youthful visionary revelations maintained their consistency
in older age.
The following short study will make the case that Ellen White’s theological position in
1849 appears to have stretched onward until at least 1897, suggesting that her position on the
Apocrypha was grounded in a consistent and principled belief about the Bible’s transmission
and inspiration. Quotations in this study have been given emphasis by me with italics.

2. Impossible to Judge Inspiration

A notable belief of hers that she outlines in her later years is that nobody can decide what
is inspired and what does not belong within the Bible (an idea she largely explores within

Academia Letters, April 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Matthew Korpman, mkorpman@lasierra.edu

Citation: Korpman, M. (2022). Endorsing the Septuagint: Ellen White and Her Later Views of the Apocrypha.
Academia Letters, Article 5126.

2
relation to science). She writes that: “I would have both my arms taken off at my shoulders
before I would ever make the statement or set my judgment upon the Word of God as to what
is inspired and what is not inspired.” Again, she emphasizes that: “I take the Bible just as it
is, as the Inspired Word. I believe its utterances in an entire Bible” (White 1888a, “The Guide
Book”). That Bible, of course, at the time, included the Apocrypha. Elsewhere she writes
that “No part of the Bible has died from old age. All the past history of the people of God is to
be studied by us today, that we may benefit by the experiences recorded” (White 1897). Some
other of her comments, reproduced in full, are illustrative of this thinking.

[God] has not… qualified any finite man… [or] inspired one man or any class of
men to pronounce judgment as to that which is inspired or is not. When men, in
their finite judgement, find it necessary to go into an examination of Scriptures
to define that which is inspired and that which is not, they have stepped before
Jesus to show Him a better way than He has led us. (White 1888a)

We must cling to our Bibles. If Satan can make you believe that there are things
in the word of God that are not inspired, he will then be prepared to ensnare your
soul. We shall have no assurance, no certainty, at the very time we need to know
what is truth… Therefore let no one entertain the question whether this or that
portion of the word of God is inspired. (White 1888b:787)

We call on you to take your Bible, but do not put a sacrilegious hand upon it and
say, “That is not inspired,” simply because somebody else has said so. Not a jot
or tittle is ever to be taken from that Word. Hands off, brethren! Do not touch the
ark. Do not lay your hand upon it, but let God move (White 1888c, “Sermon”).

Her words in later life appear to echo her concern from her youth when in 1849, speaking
about the Apocrypha, she declared that Adventists should “Bind it to the heart… le[s]t every-
thing be cast off” (White 1849). One plausible interpretation of her youthful vision was that
she was warning that any removal of part of the Bible (the Apocrypha), would risk the same
removal happening to any other parts of the Bible. If true, this would mean that she saw the
denigration of the Apocrypha as being “un-inspired,” as a denigration of scripture and inspi-
ration itself. This also reveals that for White, the canon of scripture was whatever had been
retained within her Bible up until that point. This can find evidence in her declaration that
“the Lord has preserved this Holy Book by His own miraculous power in its present shape”
(White 1888a).
Since the Bible in 1888 had no one shape, given that some had the Apocrypha and others
now didn’t, the statement affirms that White only considered one Bible to be correct (dis-

Academia Letters, April 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Matthew Korpman, mkorpman@lasierra.edu

Citation: Korpman, M. (2022). Endorsing the Septuagint: Ellen White and Her Later Views of the Apocrypha.
Academia Letters, Article 5126.

3
missing the other versions). Which version could she have leaned toward? Although many
Bibles were without the Apocrypha by 1888, many Adventists still retained their older Bibles
that had it (Graybill 1987; Korpman 2018). As such, it is likely that the Bible in its present
shape she referred to was one that retained the Apocrypha within it. Applying these insights,
the implication appears to be that she apparently believed that if a book like Tobit had been
preserved in the Bible for thousands of years, no one had the right to remove it since it was
God, in her mind, who had through his providence allowed it to enter and who had retained
it.

3. Endorsing the Septuagint

The second point of consideration is a comment Ellen White made with regard to the canon in
her later years. The statement relates to the intertestamental period of Judaism, during which
time the books that came to be included in the Apocrypha or Deuterocanon were composed
and propagated. She notes in her work the Desire of Ages that: “For hundreds of years the
Scriptures had been translated into the Greek language, then widely spoken throughout the
Roman Empire.” She adds that this was necessary because “the Jews were scattered every-
where,” an allusion to the fact that it was the Jewish community in Egypt that first translated
the Hebrew Bible into Greek (White 1898:33).
This seemingly innocuous comment is fascinating for two reasons. The first reason this
comments is striking is that the Greek translation which she referred to was the Septuagint
(LXX), and furthermore it was not widely held in a favorable position by some Protestants at
this time. This is the first and only time that White references the ancient translation, and she
does so positively. Some of the books White would have been exposed to would have spoken
quite disparagingly about it precisely because it was believed that the Septuagint translation
was first responsible for mixing the apocryphal books together with the canonical.

My assertion was that “the Septuagint is not the Word of God,” and to this I
hold…It is to the Septuagint version that we are indebted for the Apocrypha…Now,
knowing all this, and more more; was I not fully justified in saying, that it is not
the Word of God? (Thelwall 1839:15)

Unlike today in which it is widely acknowledged that the Septuagint could look different
depending on each locale or time period (and maybe even the group responsible for compiling
the codex), the popular writers of White’s day often spoke of the idea of a Septuagint which
was believed to have included, like the King James translation she held in her hands, both
the canonical and apocryphal works. As such, it would be less likely that she made these

Academia Letters, April 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Matthew Korpman, mkorpman@lasierra.edu

Citation: Korpman, M. (2022). Endorsing the Septuagint: Ellen White and Her Later Views of the Apocrypha.
Academia Letters, Article 5126.

4
comments imagining a version of the Septuagint that lacked the apocryphal works (and in
truth, to this day we don’t know of a single copy of the Septuagint that didn’t include some
of them). The likelihood is that she made the comments with the assumption of a Greek
translation that looked very similar to her own King James Bible: inclusive of the Apocrypha.
This is clearly important, since for White to speak favorably of the Septuagint as syn-
onymous with “Scriptures,” without distinguishing one set of books in the Septuagint from
another, appears to tacitly endorse the entire collection. Or as another writer, who was favor-
able to the Septuagint, put it: “The Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, may
be called the Canon of the Apocrypha, or hidden wisdom” (von Bunsen 1867: 248).

4. Conclusion
Given that almost any discussion of the Septuagint in the nineteenth century made reference to
the issue of the Apocrypha, it seems unlikely that she would not have recognized the potential
objections to her positive endorsement. As such, this small reference to the history of the
Bible’s translation, when placed alongside her admonitions that nobody can make decisions
as to what is inspired or not inspired within the binding of her King James Bible, seems to
give weight to the argument that she still maintained her younger view on the canon between
1888-1898, holding that the apocryphal books shared the same inspiration as the canonical.
While not conclusive, when combined with her quotations and allusions of the Apocrypha, it
is compelling. This would then demonstrate a consistent theological position on her part from
1849 to 1899, indicating that the role of the Apocrypha represents an important aspect of her
total ministry.

Academia Letters, April 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Matthew Korpman, mkorpman@lasierra.edu

Citation: Korpman, M. (2022). Endorsing the Septuagint: Ellen White and Her Later Views of the Apocrypha.
Academia Letters, Article 5126.

5
References
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Adventist Review 179.13. 2002. 9-12.

Graybill, Ron. “Under the Triple Eagle: Early Adventist Use of the Apocrypha.” Adventist
Heritage 12.1. 1987. 25-32.

—. “Visions and Revisions – Part 1.” Ministry: International Journal for Pastors 67.2.
February 1994. 10฀13.

Korpman, Matthew. “Adventism’s Hidden Book: A Brief History of the Apocrypha.” Spec-
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—. “Antiochus Epiphanes in 1919: Ellen White, Daniel, and the Books of the Maccabees.”
Adventist Today 28.2. 2019. 30-33.

—. “Forgotten Scriptures: Allusions to and Quotations of the Apocrypha by Ellen White.”

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—. “The Protestant Reception of the Apocrypha” in The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha,
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Thelwall, A. S. An Appeal to Truth. London. 1839.

von Bunsen, Ernst. The Keys of St. Peter. London; Green Longmans. 1867.

White, Ellen. “Remarks in Vision,” Manuscript 5, 1849.

—. “A Copy of E. G. White’s Vision, Which She Had at Oswego, N.Y., January 26, 1850,”
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—. “Power of Example.” Review and Herald 18.5. 1862.

—. “The Guide Book,” Manuscript 16, 1888.

—. “David’s Prayer,” Review & Herald 65. 1888.

—. “Sermon by Mrs. E. G. White,” Manuscript 13, 1888.

Academia Letters, April 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Matthew Korpman, mkorpman@lasierra.edu

Citation: Korpman, M. (2022). Endorsing the Septuagint: Ellen White and Her Later Views of the Apocrypha.
Academia Letters, Article 5126.

6
—. to Peter Wessels, Letter 117, 1897.

—. The Desire of Ages. Mountain View, CA.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn. 1898.

Academia Letters, April 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Matthew Korpman, mkorpman@lasierra.edu

Citation: Korpman, M. (2022). Endorsing the Septuagint: Ellen White and Her Later Views of the Apocrypha.
Academia Letters, Article 5126.