Most people are familiar with how libraries divide books into fiction and nonfiction. The difference, of course, is that fiction is contrived—it’s storytelling where the story is an exercise of the imagination. This is true even if the story is based on real events and people. If the story did not actually happen, then no matter how closely it resembles reality, it’s still fiction. Nonfiction, in simplest terms, is the opposite. The writer is giving the reader a recounting of something that actually happened or providing information that is factually real.
We don’t often think about it, but there are many subcategories to both classifications. Not all nonfiction is created equal. Some of it is academic: the writer did a good deal of research, and the research is detailed and dense.
The biblical writers were careful researchers as well. Scholars know that for two reasons. First, the Scripture itself informs us that sources were used for points of information. A “Book of Jashar” is mentioned as a source for biblical material on two occasions (Josh. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18). Numbers 21:14 refers to a source called “The Book of the Wars of the Lord.” Luke, who was not an eyewitness to the life of Jesus, apparently made use of sources in writing his Gospel (Luke 1:1–4).
Second, even when the biblical writers don’t name their sources, scholars have been able to trace phrases, poetic lines, and symbols found in Scripture to older or contemporary sources in the writings of other civilizations. Biblical writers were under no obligation to indicate when they used sources. There was no sense of intellectual property in the ancient world that required anything like modern footnoting. Luke and Paul quoted classical Greek poets on several occasions (Epimenides of Crete in Acts 17:28; Menander in 1 Cor. 15:33; Epimenides of Crete in Titus 1:12). The author of Psalm 74 draws material from the Canaanite Baal Cycle about the defeat of the primeval sea, which is personified as a sea beast (Leviathan) to describe how God brought order out of chaos. Portions of Proverbs 22 are drawn from an earlier Egyptian text called “The Wisdom of Amenemope.”
Inspiration does not forbid the use of sources. In fact, the use of sources is another illustration of how inspiration was not a paranormal experience. Biblical writers used material known in their day for factual information and to help articulate arguments and theological assertions. We do the same sort of thing today when we use information outside the Bible to help people understand Scripture. The difference, of course, is that what we say isn’t divine revelation.