The Book of Mormon

Moroni 8:10

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~AD 401–421

1830 Edition

Behold I say unto you, that this thing shall ye teach, repentance and baptism unto they which are accountable and capable of committing sin; yea, teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they shall all be saved with their little children;

Influences

Acts 2:38 (KJV)
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Changes

Behold I say unto you, that this thing shall ye teach, —repentance and baptism unto thosey whicho are accountable and capable of committing sin; yea, teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they shall all be saved with their little children;.

Simple English

I tell you, this is what you should teach: people who are old enough to know right from wrong need to turn from their sins and be baptized. Teach parents that they must turn from their sins and be baptized. They must humble themselves like their little children. Then they and their little children will all be saved.

Paraphrase

'Here’s what you should teach: repentance and baptism are for people old enough to understand right and wrong and capable of sin. Teach parents that they need to repent, be baptized, and become humble like their little children. Then they’ll all be saved together with their children.'

Notes

8:9-11

Jerald and Sandra Tanner note in Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, "A popular controversy in Joseph Smith's day was whether or not infants needed baptism. Since Joseph Smith's mother, sister and two brothers had all joined the Presbyterian Church in the mid-1820's, which practiced infant baptism, we assume this was a point of discussion in his own home. Joseph Smith, Sr., was distrustful of organized religion and Joseph Smith, Jr., favored the Methodists. When Joseph Smith related his first vision to his mother he is reported to have said: 'I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.' Conveniently, this issue was settled in the Book of Mormon by the great general, Mormon, Moroni's father, in approximately 400 A.D."

LDS author Grant Hardy writes in his Understanding the Book Of Mormon, "In 1831, Alexander Campbell, one of the book's first critics (and certainly the first one to read it carefully), famously observed that it seemed to weigh in on all the popular religious questions of the day, including 'infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church government, religious experience, the call to the ministry , the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the question of freemasonry, republican government, and the right of the man.' This is a fair list, and references to these topics-or their analogous counterparts-can be found throughout the Book of Mormon." -Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon, p. 184