Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Extent of Mrs. White’s Borrowings in Her Work on Paul

The charge asserts that Mrs. White “copied a large part of her book” from Conybeare and Howson. But what are the facts? ^* Sketches From the Life of Paul might be described as a series of spiritual lessons hung on a framework of historical facts and descriptions. And it is in the framework that the borrowings from Conybeare and Howson are found. Direct quotations of words, phrases, and clauses, plus any accompanying close paraphrase, constitute about 7 per cent of Sketches From the Life of Paul. ^† EGWC 424.1

It is an interesting fact that the Conybeare and Howson work borrowed from other religious writers, and without credit or quotation marks. The second chapter (written by Howson) opens with a comment on what some “modern Jews”—unnamed—have written concerning Christianity. A footnote remarks concerning the works of these Jews: “Some of these works have furnished us with useful suggestions, and in some cases the very words have been adopted.” But nowhere in the nearly fifty pages of that chapter can we discover when Howson is quoting from these Jewish writers. Evidently he did not consider it necessary to give any more credit than this very brief and very vague footnote. (See Conybeare and Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, vol. 1 [1st ed., 1851], p. 34, footnote.) EGWC 424.2