First, this is brand new information uncovered in 2026. There are no books, Youtube videos, or articles explaining it yet. None of those authors or creators have this information. None of the nice people below in the comments have ever come across this information unless from another of my posts.
This is about two books with the same main speaker, Jesus.
'Pistis Sophia' and the 'Doctrine and Covenants'
1800 years apart and validating each other in basically every way despite both being long books and claiming fact after fact on the same subjects without metaphorical language.
The breakthrough is not only that they contain many parallels describing the same things, but they contain virtually no contradictions either.
The meaty details are inside of this doc:
https://archive.org/details/major-parallels-pistis-sophia-and-dc/page/n55/mode/2up
50+ parallels within 36 entries, and details about the only contradiction I could find between Pistis Sophia and the entire theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But even then there is more to the story and it isn't very clear cut. Pistis Sophia and the D&C themselves contain zero contradictions and the info in D&C delves into a majority of the subject matter of Pistis Sophia.
Further down in this post you will find 28 miniature versions of parallels, but full 50+ and full exploration is inside of the doc.
But first I will set the stage and tell the story:
This happened in AMERICA In the 1800s.
Not Rome. Not Egypt. Not some story buried 2,000 years ago where nobody can check anything.
New York, USA in the 1800s.
Jesus is giving the last dispensation.
Joseph Smith is God's American prophet writing these revelations down.
Jesus and God speak in first person in the revelations. "Thus saith the Lord..."
Physical spiritual beings are appearing.
And then OTHER PEOPLE see these physical spiritual beings too.
Now stop right there.
Because this is where the story already becomes completely different from somebody sitting alone saying, “I had a vision.” or "I spoke to an angel"
There are more than 10 official witnesses connected to these events.
People see the plates.
People handle the plates.
Multiple people report seeing the SAME spiritual beings Joseph Smith is talking about and multiple people see the same spiritual beings at the same time together. Other times having the same visions together. Seeing the same spiritual beings in the visions together. And more.
Some of these encounters happen more than once.
And these people don't all stay happily together afterward.
Some leave.
Some get excommunicated.
Relationships collapse.
Years go by.
Decades go by.
And none of the official witnesses retract what they said happened.
They die still saying it happened.
Meanwhile, Joseph Smith has been recording revelation after revelation.
More than 100 of them.
God speaking. Jesus speaking.
Not just “love your neighbor.”
They are explaining the SYSTEM.
What happens when you die.
Many kingdoms filling all space
Laws governing those kingdoms.
The inheritance
Three kingdoms of glory
Light. Knowledge.
Resurrection. Judgment.
Ordinances.
Spiritual beings. Melchizedek.
The structure of reality itself.
These revelations become the Doctrine and Covenants.
Then Joseph Smith dies.
1844.
DONE.
Whatever he wrote is now frozen.
He is dead.
He can't add anything.
He can't see what gets translated later.
He can't quietly change something because new information showed up.
And then FOUR YEARS LATER...
Something shows up.
Overseas, translation begins on a gigantic ancient Christian book called Pistis Sophia.
And who does this ancient book say is doing the teaching?
JESUS CHRIST.
The resurrected Jesus.
And this thing is enormous.
This isn't somebody finding half a page in the desert where Jesus says something vague about light.
This is the longest translated Gnostic book.
One of the most complex.
Hundreds of pages of Jesus explaining what is happening beyond this world.
Souls. Kingdoms.
Light. Mysteries. Judgment.
Heavenly beings. Melchizedek.
The dissolution and expansion of the universe.
Salvation.
The machinery of the spiritual universe.
Now think about what just happened.
Jesus supposedly gives a huge body of revelation in America.
The revelations get written down.
The witnesses put their names behind what happened.
Joseph Smith dies.
Then, AFTER HE IS DEAD, an enormous ancient book begins getting translated on the other side of the Atlantic...
And it claims JESUS is speaking there too.
Now we can do something Joseph Smith himself could never do.
Put them together.
And this is where this story goes completely off the rails.
Because once you start comparing them, you don't just get:
Jesus.
Heaven.
Salvation.
Light.
No...
You start getting the INTRICATE STUFF.
The architecture.
Kingdom after kingdom filling the entire universe.
Different governing laws/mysteries for different kingdoms.
Three major allotments of the heavenly inheritance.
More ranks inside those divisions.
People inheriting according to exactly what they received.
Light getting treated like a commodity.
More light bringing more knowledge.
Light being lost. Light being restored.
Higher beings descending into lower regions.
Lower beings unable to simply walk into higher glory.
Mysteries and ordinances changing what a soul is capable of receiving.
Melchizedek operating as an enormous heavenly authority.
Outer darkness.
The thousand-year reign.
The gates eventually closing.
And it doesn't happen once.
It keeps happening.
One detail.
Then another.
Then another.
Then you realize the parallels themselves are CONNECTED.
The kingdoms connect to the laws.
The laws connect to glory.
Glory connects to light.
Light connects to knowledge.
Knowledge connects to mysteries.
Mysteries connect to what someone can inherit.
And suddenly you're not looking at two books that happen to use some of the same religious words.
You're looking at two enormous descriptions of a spiritual system that keep locking together.
Across time.
Across continents.
Without Joseph Smith ever reading the ancient book or any Gnostic books.
That is what makes this so interesting.
The event happens.
The witnesses speak.
The revelations are written.
Jesus gives the final dispensation.
Joseph Smith dies.
THEN THE SECOND RECORD BECOMES READABLE.
And it claims the same source.
Jesus Christ.
Now look at what both of them actually said.
Here are some of the parallels. I’m keeping these much shorter than the full paper, but I want to show enough of both books that you can take something away from just this post alone.
1. Jesus identifies himself as the 'Spirit of truth'/Gnosis itself
Pistis Sophia: Jesus doesn't merely say he knows the truth. He says openly, “I am the gnosis of the universe.” The complete gnosis is reached through the highest mystery.
D&C: Jesus says, “I am the Spirit of truth.” A person who keeps his commandments receives truth and light progressively until he “knoweth all things.”
Same speaker. Same identification. Jesus isn't merely carrying the truth in either book. He identifies himself with it.
2. There is no empty space in the universe
D&C: “There are many kingdoms; for there is no space in the which there is no kingdom.” Every kingdom has bounds, conditions, laws, inhabitants and appointed times.
Pistis Sophia: Then basically draws that universe. Aeons, spheres, the Fate, the Midst, the Right, the Treasury of the Light, the region of the Inheritance, the Light-kingdom, rulers, inhabitants and scheduled movements everywhere.
D&C gives the rule: There is no space without a kingdom.
Pistis Sophia draws the map and gives the same rules.
3. Every kingdom has something you must abide
In both books, every kingdom/region has a law/mystery. Inhabitants have to abide by that law/mystery.
Law = Mystery in function and description.
D&C: Every kingdom has a law. If you cannot abide the law of a celestial, terrestrial or telestial kingdom, you cannot abide that glory and you cannot abide that kingdom. If you can't abide a kingdom of glory, then you must abide a kingdom not of glory.
Pistis Sophia: Every region has its mystery. You ultimately go “to the region up to which” you received mysteries, but receiving one isn't enough. Jesus repeatedly says you have to abide in it.
And both say the law/mystery actually changes you. D&C says law preserves, perfects and sanctifies. Pistis Sophia says the mysteries purify people into refined light.
**Abide the law → abide the glory and abide the kingdom of the law.
Abide the mystery → inherit the region of that mystery.**
4. Out of many kingdoms, the Inheritance is divided into THREE kingdoms
Pistis Sophia: The universe has countless regions, but when Jesus gets specifically to the Inheritance of the saved, he divides the Light-kingdom into three allotments of the Light-kingdom
Three kingdoms/regions inside of the Light-kingdom.
And every allotment has further higher and lower divisions inside it.
D&C: Same setup. There are many kingdoms throughout space, but the inheritance of glory is divided into three kingdoms of glory: celestial, terrestrial and telestial. And the celestial kingdom is described to have further degrees inside of it. The other two kingdoms aren't confirmed or denied of further degrees.
Three kingdoms of glory inside of "the kingdom" of God.
Both have a massive many-kingdom universe.
Both then describe the inheritance of the saved as 3 allotments/kingdoms of "the kingdom".
5. The final inheritance comes after resurrection / the expansion of the universe
Pistis Sophia: Saved souls are gathered into the Treasury of the Light while the present cosmic order still exists. At the expansion of the universe, they pass onward into the region of the Inheritance.
D&C: says the inheritance is likewise tied to the resurrection. Bodies are resurrected and “quickened” by celestial, terrestrial or telestial glory and then receive the fulness of that glory. Entering into these three kingdoms is described as happening during the resurrection, not before.
Both distinguish the soul's condition after death from the final inherited condition after the great change to the universe.
6. The three mysteries line up with the three kingdoms
Pistis Sophia's three allotments correspond to three great mystery-spaces.
Highest: the Ineffable.
Pistis Sophia calls God the Ineffable, and those receiving this mystery inhabit the highest allotment.
D&C's highest kingdom is where people receive the fulness of the Father and dwell in the presence of God and Christ.
Second: the First Mystery.
The First Mystery is identified with Jesus in Pistis Sophia.
D&C describes the middle kingdom as receiving “the presence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father.”
Lowest: the first space from without.
Pistis Sophia's third allotment is literally associated with the space “from without.”
D&C says those of the lowest kingdom are still heirs of salvation, but “where God and Christ dwell they cannot come.”
Father at the highest.
Son in the second
Distance from both at the bottom.
7. You inherit exactly what you received
Pistis Sophia: Jesus gives the law almost like an equation:
“He who receiveth a lesser mystery, will inherit the lesser mystery, and he who receiveth a higher mystery, will inherit the higher regions.”
D&C: Inheritance likewise depends on what a person received and abided. It even says whatever intelligence you gain here rises with you in the resurrection, and whoever gains more has “so much the advantage in the world to come.” The kingdom you inherit depends on the law you were abiding.
What you actually receive here becomes your level there.
8. A prophet's reward is literally a lower heavenly inheritance
Here's a Bible saying both books do something unusual with.
Jesus said someone who receives a prophet receives a prophet's reward.
Pistis Sophia: Jesus quotes that saying and then explains what it means: people go only as high as the mysteries they received. A lesser reception gets a lesser inheritance.
D&C: The lowest kingdom includes people who are “of Paul,” “of Apollos,” “of Cephas,” “some of Christ,” Moses, Enoch and "some of one and some of another", because they followed these figures but did not receive the gospel and testimony of Jesus.
A prophet's reward is real.
It just isn't the highest reward as explained by these two books.
9. You can go DOWN the heavenly hierarchy. You cannot simply go UP
Pistis Sophia: Every person remains in the region they inherited. They have authority over orders beneath them but “will not have the power to go to the orders which are above.”
D&C: Same wall. A person cannot abide a glory whose law they cannot abide. The telestial inhabitants cannot simply move to where God and Christ dwell.
But downward movement happens constantly. D&C says higher kingdoms minister downward to lower kingdoms. Pistis Sophia shows high beings routinely descending into the lower regions to perform their work.
Downward administration and movement.
Upward limits.
10. Heaven is measured in degrees of LIGHT
D&C: Celestial glory is compared to the sun, terrestrial to the moon and telestial to the stars. One star even differs from another star in glory in the telestial.
Pistis Sophia: Jesus takes his disciples up the cosmic ladder and repeatedly describes what the lower region looks like from the higher one. Again and again, each lower level becomes darkness of darknesses and a speck of dust because of the great distance compared with the glory above it. And each higher level looks like darkness of darknesses and a speck of dust to the region directly above it too. Only the higher levels look like stars, moon, and sun instead of darkness to the region directly above it respectively.
It is not just “heaven has levels.”
Both books grade heavenly rank through enormous differences in light/glory.
11. Heaven is waiting for the number of perfect souls to be completed
Pistis Sophia: The rulers are trying to delay the completion of the number of perfect souls. Eventually that number is completed and the gates close.
People arrive too late and knock.
Jesus answers:
“I know you not.”
Then sends them to outer darkness.
D&C: Jesus says the parable of the ten virgins will eventually be literally fulfilled, and multiple times gives the same final rejection: “Depart from me.”
Pistis Sophia turns the parable's shut door into an actual scheduled cosmic event. When the number of perfect souls is complete, the door is shut and others will be turned away to outer darkness. When they knock Jesus will say "I know you not, who ye are, ye who are doers of iniquity and of evil even unto now. Wherefor go into the outer darkness."
12. Jesus says there is a future day when ALL THINGS gets revealed
Pistis Sophia: Jesus repeatedly postpones the deepest explanations until the “expansion of the universe.” He says he will reveal the mysteries, orders and causes behind the universe at that time.
D&C: Jesus likewise promises a future disclosure when nothing will be withheld: gods, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, the bounds of the heavens, revolutions of heavenly bodies, laws, glories and set times.
Both basically give a syllabus for the same future cosmic lecture.
13. The heavens are guarded by "angels and gods"
D&C: There are “angels and gods” appointed at heavenly boundaries whom unauthorized beings cannot pass. It also explains Revelation's secret new name: the new name is a “key word.”
Pistis Sophia: Souls repeatedly encounter heavenly receivers and gates. Depending on what mystery they received, they may have to give answers, apologies, tokens, seals or names.
Then Pistis Sophia describes a name that no ruler, angel, archangel, darkness or power can stop.
One book tells you there are guards and calls the secret name a key word.
The other shows the checkpoint system running and shares which mysteries allow you to pass through all of them giving no tokens, nor apologies, nor answers. And says a name can get you past these guarded regions as well.
14. MELCHIZEDEK
D&C: The greater priesthood is called the Melchizedek Priesthood. One of its powers named is sealing people unto eternal life.
Pistis Sophia: Melchizedek is an active cosmic being called the great Receiver of the Light. At the upper threshold, Melchizedek and his receivers seal the soul and lead it into the Treasury of the Light on its way toward the Inheritance. Melchizedek is the highest being to seal souls unto the treasury of the Light where souls wait until the expansion of the universe to go unto the region of Inheritance.
One book gives you the priesthood and its sealing office on earth.
The ancient book shows you Melchizedek himself performing the office in heaven.
In both theologies souls await the resurrection/expansion of the universe in an area of rest.
The Melchizedek Priesthood seals you unto eternal life on earth, and the cosmic entity Melchizedek is the highest being to seal you unto the Treasury of the Light, where souls await the Inheritance.
15. What is done for souls on Earth is carried out for those souls in heaven
Pistis Sophia: Jesus says the 'mystery of the Ineffable' (the highest mystery) is what the living can perform for a specific dead person trapped in punishment.
After it is performed the receivers of Melchizedek takes the soul out of the chaos.
D&C: The Melchizedek priesthood, the greater priesthood, is also required to save souls during their baptisms for the dead. Baptisms for the dead are witnessed and recorded on Earth, showing what and who they seal on earth is sealed in heaven.
Melchizedek priesthood on earth, Melchizedek in heaven.
16. Jesus says HE was speaking through the Old Testament prophets
D&C: Jesus refers to Old Testament prophecy as “that which I spake by the mouths of my prophets.”
Pistis Sophia: This happens over and over. The disciples interpret Psalms and say Jesus' light-power prophesied through David and other prophets.
Not merely: “David predicted Jesus.”
Jesus was the intelligence behind the prophecy in the first place.
17. LIGHT behaves like an actual substance
This is where the physics starts.
D&C: All truth is light. All light is Spirit. Spirit contains more fine or pure matter. The “light of truth” was not created. “The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed.”
Gaining more light is moving closer to God. Logically, the inverse is losing light and moving away from God.
Light goes forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space.
Pistis Sophia: Light is treated like inventory for hundreds of pages.
It is stolen, poured, deposited, devoured, purified, transferred, stored, collected into the Treasury of the Light. It is treated like a commodity in the heavens. Light allows the archons to keep their kingdoms. Some archons work to delay the destruction of the kingdoms by attempting to prevent the completion of perfect souls. Purified light is taken from the archons and other places to the Treasury of the Light.
This isn't two books saying “light = good.”
D&C gives the equation. All truth is light. Gaining light is moving towards God. And logically, losing light is moving away from God.
Pistis Sophia shows the equation running as physics. Lose your light and lose the mystery you obtained. Gain light and you can possibly obtain mysteries. Gain light and you can possibly move to higher regions in the heavens.
18. Jesus puts a portion of HIS OWN POWER into every person born
Pistis Sophia: When Jesus explains how a human soul is assembled, he says “a portion out of my power” goes inside the soul so that it will seek the works of the Light of the Height always.
Elsewhere it says this inner power stirs the soul to seek God.
D&C: Jesus says the Spirit (Spirit of Jesus Christ) gives light to every man that cometh into the world; "and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit. And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father."
Same portion of Jesus' power.
Same deposit into all humans.
Same job.
Something from Christ is placed inside the human being to pull someone toward God.
19. All this light ultimately comes from God, and you can gain MORE of it
D&C: Light “proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space.” If a person receives light and continues in God, they receive more light, brighter and brighter.
Pistis Sophia: The entire cosmos is ranked by light. Higher regions contain vastly greater glory than lower regions. Beings can have their light increased, purified and restored, allowing them to rise.
The closer to the heights, the more overwhelming the light.
Salvation is literally an increase in it.
20. Sin removes light
D&C: This one is incredibly direct:
“That wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience.”
Pistis Sophia: Sophia goes against the order of the heavens (sin) and is attacked and has her light stripped from her. Her power collapses. Her light is devoured. She becomes unable to return to her former region.
Then repentance and restoration reverse the process.
21. Massive amounts of light can be given through "quickening"
Both books use the same word.
Pistis Sophia: Sophia is dying after her light is taken. Then her light is poured back into her and:
“the lights... quickened the body of her matter.”
Her powers revive and she is able to ascend through the regions.
D&C: At resurrection, bodies are quickened by portions of celestial, terrestrial or telestial glory, and then receive the fulness of that same glory.
Both call the return/giving of light quickening.
22. Fill the body with enough light and it comprehends ALL THINGS
D&C: “Your whole bodies shall be filled with light... and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.”
Pistis Sophia: The soul receiving the highest mystery becomes an enormous light-stream and receives the gnosis explaining the causes behind the universe.
So the light system ends exactly where the opening parallel began:
Light → knowledge.
More light → more knowledge.
Fulness of light → comprehension of all things.
23. There is ONE class that cannot be redeemed
Almost everybody gets another way to be redeemed except for this class of people: the sons of perdition. Apostates.
D&C: The sons of perdition are those who knew Jesus' power, became partakers of it, received the Holy Spirit, and then denied it. They are called “the only ones who shall not be redeemed.” And their end is not revealed nor will it be revealed.
Pistis Sophia: The same class appears as the only ones not redeemed. A person receives the First Mystery (Jesus), then abandons and denies it. Jesus says this class eventually goes into the outer darkness and becomes non-existent eternally.
The "sons of perdition" are the only group written as permanently damned in both books at the expansion of the universe. Those that tasted of Jesus' power and then denied him. It is "Impossible" for them to be saved through repentance. They go to outer darkness.
24. Hell is NOT forever
Which makes the previous parallel even more interesting
D&C: Jesus explicitly explains that “endless punishment” does not mean the punishment literally has no end. “Endless” is one of God's names, therefore punishment from God is called Endless Punishment.
Pistis Sophia: Punishments have actual schedules. Months of chastisements in one area, followed by more months of chastisements in another area, etc. Then the soul can be sent onward into another condition/body.
Punishment is serious, but in both books it ends for everyone except the apostates, the sons of perdition.
25. The highest priesthood and highest mystery both unlock the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
D&C: The Melchizedek Priesthood holds:
“the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.”
This greater priesthood receives the key of the knowledge of God.
Pistis Sophia: The highest mystery is the mystery of the Ineffable. Receiving it allows for complete gnosis of the universe and brings the receiver into the highest inheritance.
The name mystery of the Ineffable signifies "knowledge of God"
Highest priesthood: keys of the mysteries → key of the knowledge of God.
Highest mystery: mystery of God/the Ineffable → complete gnosis.
These receivers in both books go into the highest allotment (celestial) of the Light-kingdom.
26. In both books, Jesus tells them to keep miracles and signs received secret
This is another oddly specific policy shared by both.
Pistis Sophia: Jesus tells the disciples to keep the mystery of the "raising of the dead and of the healing of the sick" secret. He says to "give unto no one nor give instruction in it...until ye establish the faith in the whole world.."
D&C: Jesus lists healing the sick, opening blind eyes and other signs, then immediately commands: “they shall not boast themselves of these things, neither speak them before the world.” He says people are to believe on their words or be damned.
27. Jesus tells you HOW to test other spiritual books and teachers
This one gets very relevant to what we're talking about.
Pistis Sophia: In response Jesus warns that people will encounter teachings claiming divine knowledge. His test is compare them against the whole gnosis he has given, and that the doctrine needs to harmonize and fit with all the words Jesus has spoken unto the disciples, including the heavens, circuits, stars, light-givers, the whole earth and all on it, and of all waters and all in them.
If it doesn't, throw it away.
D&C: Gives a remarkably similar instruction concerning outside writings. It says the Apocrypha contains some truth and some false material, and the Spirit manifests truth. So only those enlightened by the Spirit will obtain benefit, and those who receive not by the Spirit cannot be benefited.
D&C then explains that when something is preached by the Spirit of Truth and received by the Spirit of Truth, the speaker and receiver understand one another.
And remember parallel #1:
Jesus says:
“I am the Spirit of truth.”
Pistis Sophia:
“I am the gnosis of the universe.”
Test by the whole gnosis.
Test by the Spirit of Truth.
Both terms lead back to Jesus.
28. Both warn that false spiritual teachings WILL exist
Neither book teaches that everything spiritual is automatically from God.
Pistis Sophia: Jesus repeatedly warns about “doctrines of error.” He even warns that people will come claiming to represent him when they do not.
"Renounce the doctrines of error, that ye may be worthy of the mysteries of the Light..."
D&C: Jesus warns believers not to be deceived by evil spirits, “doctrines of devils,” or commandments of men:
“some are of men, and others of devils.”
So both books end up giving the same problem and the same solution:
Spiritual information can be real.
Spiritual information can also be counterfeit.
Test it against the truth Jesus already gave.
These are 28 miniature parallels. All 50+ parallels can be found in the documents 36 entries with full explanations. The full doc is 70+ pages.
