Conclusion

I have not done an exhaustive search of Ellen White’s personal library (which I hope to undertake in the near future) to determine how many of the biblical insights I have surveyed above are found in books to which she had access. In my limited search I have not found any support in nineteenth-century scholars or Bible translations for most of the conclusions I have summarized above. But even if some ideas are found to have been drawn from these sources, this will not change my basic thesis. It would still need to be explained how Ellen White was guided to select these particular biblical insights and to leave aside the more commonly held conclusions of her time that do not stand the test of later and closer exegetical study.GOP 169.2

This paper presents only a sample of many similar “burning heart” experiences I have had as a Hebrew exegete—instances in which Ellen White has captured nuances of meaning in biblical passages that have become apparent in the original Hebrew and Greek but are not represented by modern translations; or conversely, instances in which Ellen White has provided details about the biblical narratives that I had always assumed were unique to her and not recorded in Scripture, but have later learned are supported by a close reading of the biblical text in the original languages. A similar kind of testimony could be given regarding details of historical geography, where Ellen White’s picturesque descriptions of the localities in which biblical events took place—no doubt based upon her having seen these events in vision—are strikingly confirmed by the recent research of Old Testament geographers and archaeologists, when such information was (as far as I have been able to determine) not available in the historical geographies of Ellen White’s day.GOP 169.3

In the past few months I have shared some of the points presented in this paper with several of my colleagues in the Old Testament Department at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University, and have been gratified to learn that they also have had a similar experience with the writings of Ellen White when comparing her insights with their own research into Scripture in the original languages. They have compiled their own lists of instances where Ellen White’s detailed insights concerning biblical passages and events, which they had assumed were not addressed in the Scriptures, are in fact supported by a close reading of the biblical text in the original languages.GOP 169.4

Also comforting is the fact that my colleagues also have their mental “shelf” where unsolved problems remain, awaiting resolution at some providentially arranged “serendipitous moments” in their study of the Scriptures, or, if not before, explained by the Master Interpreter Himself in the soon-coming kingdom. I look forward to that glorious disclosure by the One who inspired both the biblical writers and Ellen White!GOP 169.5