The Gift of Prophecy

A Concise History of Adventist Scholarship

Although Adventist leaders have addressed this issue over the past century, ² since the early 1980s when Walter Rea publicly raised the issue of plagiarism in his book The White Lie, ³ the scholarly research on Ellen White’s use of sources has been extensive. In a sense, some Adventists were caught off guard during this turbulent time in the church’s history because the plagiarism charge and the church’s earlier responses had long been forgotten. ⁴ The mechanical view of inspiration had failed to explain the literary parallels to other sources in Ellen White’s writings. ⁵ Consequently, many lost faith and confidence in her as an inspired author. Even before Rea’s book was published, however, the White Estate had been working on the issue of Ellen White’s literary borrowing, and eventually produced a flurry of scholarly research that was released throughout the 1980s and 1990s. ⁶ GOP 320.2

Two major studies produced during this time made a significant contribution to the question of Ellen White’s use of sources. First was the study of the legal issue by attorney Vincent Ramik, senior partner in the then-Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Diller, Ramik, and Wight, specialists in patent, trademark, and copyright law. After spending 300-plus hours researching more than 1,000 cases in American literary law that spanned Ellen White’s lifetime (1790-1915), Ramik produced a 27-page legal opinion, or “lawyer’s brief,” with 53 source-citation footnotes, and concluded in the August 14, 1981, document “that Ellen G. White was not a plagiarist and her works did not constitute copyright infringement/piracy.” ⁷ The second study was the Life of Christ Research Project directed by Fred Veltman, professor of New Testament literature at Pacific Union College. Veltman and his team devoted eight years (1981-1988) to the preparation of a detailed analysis of 15 randomly selected chapters in The Desire of Ages and produced a 2,561-page report that concluded that although Ellen White used numerous sources in her writing, she was not slavishly dependent on these sources. Rather, she customized them to “enhance her writing and serve her purposes,” and demonstrated authorial independence and originality. ⁸ GOP 321.1

In more recent years Ellen White’s use of sources has continued to receive attention in such works as Leonard Brand and Don S. McMahon, The Prophet and Her Critics: A Striking New Analysis Refutes the Charges That Ellen G. White “Borrowed” the Health Message, and Don S. McMahon, Acquired or Inspired: Exploring the Origins of the Adventist Lifestyle, both published in 2005. In 2009 E. Marcella Anderson King and Kevin L. Morgan published More Than Words: A Study of Inspiration and Ellen White’s Use of Sources in the Desire of Ages, which built upon the Veltman study and made it more accessible to the general reading audience. In 2013 Kevin L. Morgan released White Lie Soap: For Removal of Lingering Stains on Ellen White’s Integrity as an Inspired Writer, which continued to build upon and expand the Veltman study. In the 2014 release of the Ellen G. White Encyclopedia Denis Fortin authored a significant article, “Plagiarism,” which dealt with this charge and Ellen White’s use of sources. In 2015 Tim Poirier authored “Ellen White and Sources: The Plagiarism Debate,” chapter 11 in Understanding Ellen White: The Life and Work of the Most Influential Voice in Adventist History, edited by Merlin Burt and commissioned by the White Estate trustees. Finally, the Ellen G. White Estate Web site, whiteestate.org, contains material on the plagiarism issue. ⁹ GOP 322.1

The most comprehensive summary of all the major issues relating to the plagiarism charge and Ellen White’s use of sources has been the lecture notes of Roger W. Coon, associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate during the 1980s and 1990s. In his seminary classes and camp meeting presentations to Adventist audiences he addressed the terminological, biblical, legal, ethical, and practical issues related to Ellen White’s use of sources, and demonstrated that Ellen White engaged in legitimate literary borrowing rather than plagiarism. ¹⁰ Coon’s material continues to influence researchers today and is utilized in college and seminary classes whenever Ellen White’s literary borrowing is discussed. ¹¹ GOP 322.2