We must be very careful when we use what man says in relation to the bible. It must not have any man made interpretations, it must be only pure scripture. If something is added, it must be only actual history reported as accurately as possible.
Our culture and thought today is so far removed from a lot of the culture and thought of the people God used to show His principles, so we do need some help and guidance with that. Think of the thousands of years we are separated from the people God told of in Genesis! Yet, through the many years we have had countless people who say they have a direct line to the thoughts of scripture yet all disagree with each other. For instance Luther, Calvin, the Popes, etc.
I have worked up some guidelines for myself. I find that scholars who have studied with the dead sea scrolls usually stay strictly to scripture and history without man made theory. They are expensive, main line colleges hire them, but it is possible to learn from them. For history, I check to see, again, if very well accepted colleges have accepted their writings depending on them to have checked them thoroughly. I never use guidance from anyone who doesn't give a thorough history of where they got their training, and what that training was.