"“To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.” For ages education has had to do chiefly with the memory. This faculty has been taxed to the utmost, while the other mental powers have not been correspondingly developed. Students have spent their time in laboriously crowding the mind with knowledge, very little of which could be utilized. The mind thus burdened with that which it cannot digest and assimilate is weakened; it becomes incapable of vigorous, self-reliant effort, and is content to depend on the judgment and perception of others. Ed 230.1"
"To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion."
EGW directly quotes Proverbs 1:4, making it a clear and intentional allusion.
"Seeing the evils of this method, some have gone to another extreme. In their view, man needs only to develop that which is within him. Such education leads the student to self-sufficiency, thus cutting him off from the source of true knowledge and power. Ed 230.2"
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
EGW's statement about self-sufficiency cutting one off from true knowledge echoes the sentiment in John 15:5 about dependence on Christ for fruitfulness. The connection is thematic, focusing on the importance of relying on a source outside oneself.
"The education that consists in the training of the memory, tending to discourage independent thought, has a moral bearing which is too little appreciated. As the student sacrifices the power to reason and judge for himself, he becomes incapable of discriminating between truth and error, and falls an easy prey to deception. He is easily led to follow tradition and custom. Ed 230.3"
"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
EGW's discussion of tradition and custom leading to deception aligns with Matthew 15:9, which criticizes worship based on human commandments rather than divine truth. Both passages address the danger of following man-made doctrines over divine guidance.
"It is a fact widely ignored, though never without danger, that error rarely appears for what it really is. It is by mingling with or attaching itself to truth that it gains acceptance. The eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil caused the ruin of our first parents, and the acceptance of a mingling of good and evil is the ruin of men and women today. The mind that depends upon the judgment of others is certain, sooner or later, to be misled. Ed 230.4"
"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
EGW directly references the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil from Genesis 3:6, drawing a parallel between the original sin and the acceptance of a mixture of good and evil today. This is a clear and intentional allusion.