Inspiration and Revelation: What It Is and How It Works

Eugene Shubert

A Justification For Plagiarism as Practiced by the World’s Greatest Literary Minds, Prophets, and the World’s Redeemer

Here is a great link that mentions some of the teachings of Jesus. It proves that the Savior of the world wasn’t completely original (critics could say). See Inspiration and Revelation: What It Is and How It Works.

Here are some pertinent quotes:

The biblical writers copied from one another without attribution of source, and apparently felt no compunctions about such practice:

Micah (4:1-3) borrowed from Isaiah (2:2-4). The scribe who compiled 2 Kings (18-20) also borrowed from Isaiah (36-39). Matthew and Luke borrowed heavily from Mark as well as from another common source. None of these ever acknowledged their borrowing. (See The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, pp. 178, 179.)

In fact, many scholars openly acknowledge that some 91 percent of the Gospel of Mark was copied by Matthew and Luke when they wrote their respective Gospels!

Of perhaps greater interest, however, is the fact that the writers of the Bible would from time to time copy (or "borrow") the literary productions of noninspired authors, including pagan writers. For example, about 600 B.C. Epimenides wrote:

“They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one—The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies! But thou art not dead; thou livest and abidest for ever; For in thee we live and move and have our being.”

Sound vaguely familiar? Well, the Apostle Paul twice used some of these words, once in Titus 1:12 ("One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies") and again in his sermon on Mars Hill in Athens, in Acts 17:28 ("For in him we live, and move, and have our being").

Jesus did not invent the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12. A generation earlier Rabbi Hillel 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—of the Lord's Prayer may be found in earlier ritual prayers known as the Ha-Kaddish.

Substantial chunks of John's Apocalypse—the Book of Revelation—are lifted bodily from the Book of Enoch, a pseudepigraphical work known to have been circulated some 150 years before John wrote the last book of the Bible; and even Jude borrowed a line ("Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints") from the same source.

Indeed, some 15 apocryphal or pseudepigraphical books are cited in our New Testament—generally without attribution of their source.

Doctor Luke tells us that he did a substantial amount of research and investigation in sources then available to him before he wrote the Gospel that bears his name:

“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, . . . it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:1, 3, 4, NASB).

In commenting on this passage, Robert W. Olson perceptively remarks:

Luke did not acquire his information through visions or dreams but through his own research. Yet while material in the gospel of Luke was not given by direct revelation it was nonetheless written under divine inspiration. He did not write to tell his readers something new, but to assure them of what was true—"that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught." What Luke wrote was not original, but it was dependable. God led Luke to use the right sources. (See The SDA Bible Commentary, vol 5, p. 669).

Eugene Shubert · Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:03 pm Post subject:

Feb-28-02. The Sunday before last I saw a documentary on the Jews that mentioned this exact quote by Hillel. Here’s the reference: Heritage: Civilization and the Jews: Abba Eban traces the origins of the Jewish people and the theory of a single universal god. Aired Sunday, March 24, 2002 KERA PBS (Dallas, TX).

On that same Sunday I was talking with a Chinese friend who is a wonderful Christian about Ellen White’s misinformed accusers and how they stumble over provable, trivial facts. I mentioned the Golden Rule not being original with Jesus and that a Rabbi Hillel had already written it a generation earlier. She was quick to tell me that Confucius (551-479 BC) taught the Golden Rule 500 years before Jesus and that it’s a well-known Chinese proverb: “What you do not wish for yourself, do not impose on others.” (Analects 12:2).

Eugene Shubert · Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:08 pm Post subject: Great Facts On Plagiarism

The following is taken from Great Facts On Plagiarism.

All should read Emerson’s essay on plagiarism. In it he declares that “Chaucer is a huge borrower.” After numerating the many sources of Chaucer’s indebtedness, Emerson adds:

Gower he uses as if he were only a brick-kiln or stone-quarry out of which to build his house. He steals by this apology—that what he takes has no worth where he finds it, and the greatest where he leaves it.

As concerning Shakespeare, Emerson says: “In point of fact, it appears that Shakespeare did owe debts in all directions and was able to use whatever he found.” Regarding the first, second and third parts of Henry VI, Emerson asserts: “Out of 6,043 lines, 1,771 were written by some author preceding Shakespeare; 2,373 by him, on the foundation laid by his own predecessors; and 1,899 were entirely his own.” Emerson then asserts:

It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature that a man having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thence forth to steal from the writings of others at discretion. All the debts which such a man would contract to another wit, would never disturb his consciousness of originality; for the administration of books, and of other minds, are a whiff of smoke to that most private reality with which he has conversed.

Johannes Brahms was frequently accused of plagiarism, but he always remained totally unmoved by the accusation because he felt that those who accused him completely misunderstood the spirit of his work. In our day, his work is held with great appreciation in every place where he was once held to be an abstruse re-creator. According to some, he is now recognized as the master craftsman of his time. When it was pointed out to Brahms that his sonata in A major, piano and violin, was being called the “Meistersinger” Sonata, because its first few notes were identical in interval, though not in pitch, with the first notes of the “Prize Song” from Wagner’s opera “Die Meistersinger,” his reply was, “Every donkey can see that.”

Florin Laiu · scholar Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 10 Location: ROMANIA

Thanks, Eugene, for this good evidence in favor of Biblical and classical "plagiarism". I say this, because Ellen White is so badly dispised today by many ignorant people, that she is nothing than a plagiarist.
I'm not an EGW fetishist. I know that the divine inspiration of prophets is more limited than we once believed (and a professional study of the Bible shows it), but the time has come, when we must have a higher practical appreciation of the Bible AND the Spirit of Prophecy !
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"Who gave him charge over the earth and who laid on him the whole world?" (NRS Job 34:13).