101 Questions on the Sanctuary and on Ellen White

77. Why Ellen White Borrowed From Others

Why did Ellen White borrow materials from other authors? QSEW 71.1

There are at least four answers to this question. QSEW 71.2

First, it was to help her express well what she had seen and heard in vision. She often alluded to her sense of inadequacy at the task of putting divine thoughts and scenes into human language. With only three grades of formal schooling, she found that reading widely aided her. She was on the alert for clearer and better expressions to use in the composition of her articles and books. QSEW 71.3

Had her thoughts been ordinary ones, she might have had a far easier time writing them out. But in vision she had been shown, for example, the pathos of the Cross, and found herself in anguish to find the best words with which to communicate the utter depths of meaning and feeling with which she had been inspired. When she found phrases in other Christian writers that helped her toward expressing what she felt, she was grateful. W. C. White states: QSEW 71.4

“In the writing of her books, she has sometimes found it very difficult and laborious to put into language the scenes presented to her; and when she has found in the language of another a correct representation of the thought presented to her, she has sometimes copied sentences and paragraphs,—feeling that she had a perfect right to do this; that it was her privilege to utilize the correct statements of other writers, of the scenes that have been presented to her.”—W. C. White to J. J. Gorrell, May 13, 1904. QSEW 71.5

Second, she borrowed historical, geographical, chronological, and other details not revealed to her in vision. W. C. White writes, as noted above: QSEW 71.6

“In some of the historical matters such as are brought out in Patriarchs and Prophets, and in Acts of the Apostles and in The Great Controversy, the main outlines were made very clear and plain to her, and when she came to write up these topics, she was left to study the Bible and history to get dates and geographical relations and to perfect her description of details.”—Selected Messages 3:462. QSEW 71.7

Ellen White laid no claim to having received all the minutiae of her historical information in vision. She stated: QSEW 71.8

“The great events which have marked the progress of reform in past ages are matters of history, well known and universally acknowledged by the Protestant world; they are facts which none can gainsay. This history I have presented briefly.”—The Great Controversy, xiii. QSEW 71.9

Third, at times the Lord led her to the discovery and use of beautiful gems of truth in the works of other authors. W. C. White and D. E. Robinson have written: QSEW 72.1

“In her early experience when she was sorely distressed over the difficulty of putting into human language the revelations of truths that had been imparted to her, she was reminded of the fact that all wisdom and knowledge comes from God and she was assured that God would bestow grace and guidance. QSEW 72.2

“She was told that in the reading of religious books and journals, she would find precious gems of truth expressed in acceptable language, and that she would be given help from heaven to recognize these and to separate them from the rubbish of error with which she would sometimes find them associated.”—Brief Statements, Page 6. QSEW 72.3

In using gems found in the writings of others, Ellen White no doubt saw herself as following a precedent set by the Lord Himself. Christ gave us the golden rule (Matthew 7:12), but Rabbi Hillel, a generation earlier had already written, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor; that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof.” The thoughts and even some of the words in the Lord’s prayer may be found in earlier Jewish ritual prayers known as Ha-Kaddish. (See The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Volume 5, pages 346, 356.) QSEW 72.4

Concerning Christ’s use of such works, Ellen White wrote: QSEW 72.5

“Christ was the originator of all the ancient gems of truth. Through the work of the enemy these truths had been displaced. They had been disconnected from their true position, and placed in the framework of error. Christ’s work was to readjust and establish the precious gems in the framework of truth. QSEW 72.6

“Christ Himself could use any of these old truths without borrowing the smallest particle, for He had originated them all. He had cast them into the minds and thoughts of each generation, and when He came to our world, He rearranged and vitalized the truths which had become dead, making them more forcible for the benefit of future generations. It was Jesus Christ who had the power of rescuing the truths from the rubbish, and again giving them to the world with more than their original freshness and power.”—Manuscript 25, 1890. (See also The Desire of Ages, 287, 288.) QSEW 72.7

Fourth, she appropriated some of the doctrinal writings of her fellow-workers, since they had developed their doctrinal concepts by mutual study. W. C. White and D. E. Robinson state: QSEW 72.8

“When tracts and pamphlets were published, the expositions of truth therein presented frequently represented the results of united, concerted study, and the forms of expression by the several writers were very similar and sometimes identical. All felt that the truths to be presented were common property and wherever one could help another or get help from another in the expression of Biblical truths, it was considered right to do so. Consequently there were many excellent statements of present truth copied by one writer from another. And no man said that aught which he wrote was exclusively his own. QSEW 72.9

“In the process of time many things which Sister white wrote and said were used by others without credit, and she in turn when dealing with prophetic exposition or doctrinal statements felt free to use without credit the statements and teachings of leading writers among the pioneers when she found in their writings the exact thought that she wished to present.... It is in the delineation in prophetic and doctrinal exposition that we find that she used the words of others or had closely paraphrased them.”—Brief Statements, pages 10, 19. QSEW 73.1

In her Introduction to The Great Controversy, first in 1888 and again in 1911, Ellen White acknowledged her borrowing not only from historians, but also from “those carrying forward the work of reform in our time” (Page xiv). She here appears to have in mind such writers as Uriah Smith, J. N. Andrews, and James White. QSEW 73.2