y have taken in hand to draw up
a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among
us, even as they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were
eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also,
having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to
write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus; that thou mightest
know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed."
Evidently, the evangelist carefully sifted the material at hand before
he wrote the Gospel, just as a modern writer would do. In the Old
Testament even clearer evidence is found {22} that the authors of the
several books were guided in the process of composition by the same
principles as writers of extra-biblical productions. The most
suggestive illustrations of this fact are found in the books of
Chronicles, in which reference is made again and again to the sources
from which the compiler gathered his material. In 1 Chron. 29. 29, for
example, mention is made of the "words of Samuel the seer, ... the
words of Nathan the prophet, and ... the words of Gad the seer"; 2
Chron. 9. 29 refers to "words of Nathan the prophet, ... the prophecy
of Ahijah, ... the visions of Iddo the seer." These are only a few of
the references scattered throughout Chronicles, but they are sufficient
to show that in their composition methods employed by secular writers
were used. The same characteristic appears in the book of Proverbs.
According to its own testimony, it contains several separate
collections. After the general title, "Proverbs of Solomon," in 1. 1,
the following additional headings are found: 10. 1, "Proverbs of
Solomon"; 22. 17, "The words of the wise"; 24. 23, "These also are the
sayings of the wise"; 25. 1, "These also are the proverbs of Solomon,
which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out"; 30. 1, "The
words of Agur"; 31. 1, "The words of King Lemuel"; 31. 10-31 is an
anonymous alphabetic acrostic. Similar more or less clearly marked
phenomena may {23} be noted in other Old Testament books, all of them
bearing witness to the presence of a human element in these writings.

More significant are the historical inaccuracies found here and there
in the books. They may not be serious; the substantial accuracy of the
writings may be established, but even the slightest inaccuracy
constitutes a blemish which one would not expect in a work coming
directly from an all-wise God.