I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days—nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.
Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.
And I know that the record which I make, to be true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge.
For it came to pass, in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, (my father Lehi having dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days;) and in that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people, that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed.
Wherefore it came to pass, that my father Lehi, as he went forth, prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people.
And it came to pass, as he prayed unto the Lord, there came a pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him; and he saw and heard much; and because of the things which he saw and heard, he did quake and tremble exceedingly.
And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the spirit and the things which he had seen.
And being thus overcome with the spirit, he was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the Heavens open; and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God.
And it came to pass that he saw one descending out of the midst of Heaven, and he beheld that his lustre was above that of the sun at noon-day.
And he also saw twelve others following him, and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament.
And they came down and went forth upon the face of the earth; and the first came and stood before my father, and gave unto him a Book, and bade him that he should read.
And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the spirit of the Lord.
And he read, saying, Wo, wo unto Jerusalem! for I have seen thine abominations; yea, and many things did my father read concerning Jerusalem—that it should be destroyed, and the inhabitants thereof, many should perish by the sword, and many should be carried away captive into Babylon.
And it came to pass that when my father had read and saw many great and marvellous things, he did exclaim many things unto the Lord; such as, Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the Heavens, and thy power, and goodness, and mercy is over all the inhabitants of the earth; and because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they shall perish!
And after this manner was the language of my father in the praising of his God; for his soul did rejoice, and his whole heart was filled, because of the things which he had seen; yea, which the Lord had shewn unto him.
And now I, Nephi, do not make a full account of the things which my father hath written, for he hath written many things which he saw in visions and in dreams; and he also hath written many things which he prophesied and spake unto his children, of which I shall not make a full account.
But I shall make an account of my proceedings in my days—Behold I make an abridgment of the record of my father, upon plates which I have made with mine own hands; wherefore, after that I have abridged the record of my father, then will I make an account of mine own life.
Therefore, I would that ye should know that after the Lord had shewn so many marvellous things unto my father Lehi, yea, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, behold he went forth among the people, and began to prophesy and to declare unto them concerning the things which he had both seen and heard.
And it came to pass that the Jews did mock him because of the things which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their wickedness and their abominations; and he testified that the things which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the Book, manifested plainly of the coming of a Messiah, and also the redemption of the world.
And when the Jews heard these things, they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out and stoned and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will shew unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord is over all them whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.
Influences
- 1:1 — 1 Corinthians 4:1 (KJV)Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
- 1:14 — Revelation 15:3 (KJV)And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
- 1:17 — 2 Maccabees 2:31 (KJV)But to use brevity, and avoid much labouring of the work, is to be granted to him that will make an abridgment.
- 1:20 — Acts 7:54 (KJV)When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Notes
- 1:1
"The book of Genesis seems to have had a real influence upon the first few chapters of the Book of Mormon. Two of Nephi's brothers, Joseph and Jacob, have names taken from the book of Genesis. His mother's name is Sariah, which reminds us of Abraham's wife Sarah-also called Sarai (Genesis 17:15). Ishmael-a friend of the family-is also a name taken from Genesis (Genesis 17:18). The name Laban is likewise found in Genesis (Genesis 24:29). The story of Nephi in some ways parallels that of Joseph found in Genesis (the younger son is favored by the father, is chosen of God, the older brothers try to kill him, etc)." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 20.
- 1:1
The name Nephi, the younger son of Lehi, appears to have been drawn from the King James Version of the Apocrypha. In 2 Maccabees 1:36 (KJV) we read: “And Neemias called this thing Naphthar, which is as much to say, a cleansing; but many men call it Nephi.”
There are over 300 proper names in the Book of Mormon. Roughly 141 of those names can be found in the Bible as well. For example, Abrahahm, Ammon, Bethabara, Esrom, Ether, Gomorrah, Ishmael, Jared, Jonas, Judea, Lemuel, Madmenah, Nazareth, Pathros, Pekah, Rama, Shinar, Sinim, and Zebulun are names found both in the Book of Mormon and the Bible.
"Many Book of Mormon names not found in the Bible seem to be made up by re-arranging various syllables or changing the ending of Bible names. For example, the Bible speaks of Abinadab, the Book of Mormon mentions Abinadi and Abinadom. The BOM also uses the biblical Aminadab and a modified Aminodi. The Bible mentions Kish, the Book of Mormon has Akish and Kishcumen. The Bible has Gimzo, and the Book of Mormon speaks of Gimgimno. Besides using the biblical name Helam, Smith expands it to Helaman.... Some seem to be simply different spellings. Melech in the Bible becomes Melek in the Book of Mormon. Biblical Chemosh becomes Chemish. Book of Mormon Ziff seems to be a different spelling of biblical Ziph. Nehor seems to be from the biblical Nahor. More names are created by adding such endings as 'hah.' The Book of Mormon has the names Nephi and Nephihah; Moroni and Moronihah; Ammon and Ammonihah; Mathoni and Mathonihah..." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 27
- 1:1
"Although criticism of the Apocrypha was growing among the Protestants in Joseph Smith's day, it was still printed in a number of King James Bibles at that time. In fact, when Smith purchased a Bible in the late 1820's, he picked one which contain the Apocrypha. LDS scholar Reed Durham mentioned this purchase in his BYU dissertation (A History of Joseph Smith's Revision of the Bible, Ph.D. dissertation, BYU, 1965, p. 25). In view of the parallels it seems obvious that Joseph Smith read at least portions of the Apocrypha before writing the book of 1 Nephi. He was apparently familiar with the Apocryphal book of Judith and both 1 and 2 Maccabees. From these three books he absorbed portions and combined them into one story in the Book of Mormon. There are thirty-two interesting parallels between material found in three books of the Apocrypha and the Book of Mormon story of Nephi....Interestingly, twenty-eight of the thirty-two parallels to the Apocrypha are found in the first five chapters of the Book of Mormon. This constitutes an extraordinary cluster of similarities..." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 29.
Parallel: Both the book of Nephi (BOM) and the book of 2 Maccabees (APO) use the word "Nephi" in their opening chapter (1 Nephi 1:1; 2 Maccabees 1:36). Furthermore, the very first verse found in 2 Maccabees mentions the Jews in Egypt. The second verse in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 1:2) contains Nephi's statement that the book would be written in the Egyptian language.
For other parallels, please see: 1 Nephi 1:17, 1 Nephi 4:20-24, 1 Nephi 2:4-6, 1 Nephi 3:3, 1 Nephi 3:16, 1 Nephi 3:25, 1 Nephi 3:31, 1 Nephi 4:1-2, 1 Nephi 4:4-5, 1 Nephi 4:7-9, 1 Nephi 4:18, 1 Nephi 4:19-24 & 38, 1 Nephi 4:20, 1 Nephi 4:27, 1 Nephi 5:9, 1 Nephi 13:40, 2 Nephi 5:8, Mosiah 3:1, Mosiah 10:13, 4 Nephi 1:31.
- 1:1
The Book of Mormon opens with this statement: "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents." Smith's own story states: "I was born in the town of Sharon...of goodly parents."
Smith is quoted as saying "born of goodly parents" in An American Prophet's Record, pp. 3-8.
For other examples of Smith's common phrases, see 2 Nephi 26:15 and 2 Nephi 28:16.
- 1:17
"There are thirty-two interesting parallels between material found in three books of the Apocrypha and the Book of Mormon story of Nephi....Interestingly, twenty-eight of the thirty-two parallels to the Apocrypha are found in the first five chapters of the Book of Mormon. This constitutes an extraordinary cluster of similarities..." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 29.
Parallel: In the first chapter of the Book of Mormon, Nephi says he will make an abridgment of his record. This echoes a portion of 2 Maccabees 2:19-23, who likewise talks about making an abridgment.
For other parallels, please see: 1 Nephi 1:1, 1 Nephi 1:2, 1 Nephi 4:20-24, 1 Nephi 2:4-6, 1 Nephi 3:3, 1 Nephi 3:16, 1 Nephi 3:25, 1 Nephi 3:31, 1 Nephi 4:1-2, 1 Nephi 4:4-5, 1 Nephi 4:7-9, 1 Nephi 4:18, 1 Nephi 4:19-24 & 38, 1 Nephi 4:20, 1 Nephi 4:27, 1 Nephi 5:9, 1 Nephi 13:40, 2 Nephi 5:8, Mosiah 10:13, 4 Nephi 1:31.
For a full note on the use of the Apocrypha, please see the annotation at 1 Nephi 1:1.