The Book of Mormon

Mosiah 1:3

Back to chapter
~124 BC

1830 Edition

And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, saying, My sons, I would that ye should remember, that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God:

Influences

Luke 18:30 (KJV)
Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.

Changes

And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, saying,: My sons, I would that ye should remember, that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God:.

Simple English

He also taught them about the records written on the brass plates. He said: My sons, I want you to remember something. If we didn’t have these plates with these records and God’s rules, we would not know anything about God’s secrets.

Paraphrase

He taught them about the brass plates and said, 'My sons, remember this: without these plates—these records and commandments—we would be stumbling around in the dark right now, knowing nothing about the ways of God.

Notes

1:3

The phrase, "would that ye should" can be found in Alma 38:5; Mosiah 1:3; Omni 1:2; D7C 46:7.

Other common phrases include "dwindled in unbelief" (2 Nephi 26:15; Helaman 15:11, Ether 4:3, D&C 3:18), "expedient that" (2 Nephi 9:15; Alma 34:9; Mosiah 13:27; D&C 9:3), "it must needs be" (1 Nephi 15:33; Alma 32:28; 3 Nephi 5:1; D&C 48:3), "save it were" (2 Nephi 11:1; Helaman 3:23; 4 Nephi 1:5; D&C 18:35), "sufficeth me" (2 Nephi 11:1; Jarom 1:2; Ether 3:17).

"After noticing that the same phrases of two or more words appear time after time throughout Joseph Smith's scriptures, we did a computer search to identify these groups of words and feel that they provide evidence that the Book of Mormon, the Inspired Version of the Bible, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price were all the product of one mind.... When we find a number of different Book of Mormon writers-e.g., Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Moroni and Mormon-all using many of the same unusual word combinations, we begin to suspect that all these books were actually written by one person."-Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 39.