I, Nephi, continue the story here on these plates. To tell it properly, I need to share what my father taught us and what happened with my brothers.
Lehi’s Prophecy About the Jews
After my father finished telling us about his dream and urging us to stay faithful, he spoke about the Jews: Jerusalem would be destroyed. Many would be taken captive to Babylon. But in God’s perfect timing, they would return. They would come back from captivity and live in their homeland again. Six hundred years after we left Jerusalem, God would raise up a prophet among the Jews—the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He talked about how many prophets had already testified about this Messiah, this Redeemer who would come. All humanity was lost in a fallen state. They would stay that way forever unless they relied on this Redeemer.
The Messenger Who Prepares the Way
He also spoke about a prophet who would come before the Messiah to prepare the way: This prophet would cry out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the Lord’s way! Make his paths straight! There stands among you someone you don’t recognize. He is far greater than I am—I’m not even worthy to untie his sandals.' My father talked a lot about this. My father said this prophet would baptize at Bethabara, beyond the Jordan River. He would baptize with water—even baptize the Messiah himself. After baptizing the Messiah with water, he would witness and testify that he had baptized the Lamb of God, the one who would take away the world’s sins.
The Scattering and Gathering
My father then spoke to my brothers about the gospel that would be preached to the Jews, and how the Jews would fall into unbelief. After they killed the Messiah, he would rise from the dead and reveal himself through the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles. My father spoke extensively about the Gentiles and the House of Israel. He compared them to an olive tree whose branches would be broken off and scattered across the entire earth. So we needed to be led together to the promised land, fulfilling the Lord’s word that we would be scattered across the earth. After the House of Israel was scattered, they would be gathered again. After the Gentiles received the fullness of the gospel, the natural branches of the olive tree—the remnants of Israel—would be grafted back in. They would come to know their true Messiah, their Lord and Redeemer.
This is how my father prophesied to my brothers. He said much more that I haven’t written here—I recorded what was needed in my other book. All this happened while my father lived in a tent in the valley of Lemuel.
Nephi Seeks His Own Witness
After I heard everything my father said about his vision and all he spoke through the Holy Spirit’s power—power he received through faith in the Son of God, the coming Messiah—I wanted to see, hear, and know these things myself. I wanted to experience them through the Holy Spirit, God’s gift to everyone who earnestly seeks him, both in ancient times and when he reveals himself to humanity. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The way has been prepared since the world’s foundation for those who repent and come to him. Those who search diligently will find. God’s mysteries will unfold to them through the Holy Spirit’s power—in these times just as in ancient times, in ancient times just as in times to come. The Lord’s course is one eternal round.
Remember this: you will be judged for everything you do. If you’ve chosen wickedness during your test of life, you’ll be found unclean before God’s judgment seat. Nothing unclean can live with God, so you’ll be cast off forever. The Holy Spirit gives me authority to speak these things. I cannot deny them.
Influences
- 10:4 — John 4:42 (KJV)And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
- 10:8 — John 1:23 (KJV)He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
- 10:8 — John 1:26-27 (KJV)John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
- 10:8 — Luke 3:16 (KJV)John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:
- 10:8 — Luke 3:16 (KJV)John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:
- 10:9 — John 1:26 (KJV)John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;
- 10:10 — John 1:29 (KJV)The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
- 10:11 — John 20:9 (KJV)For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
- 10:13 — 1 Thessalonians 4:15 (KJV)For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
- 10:14 — Romans 11:24 (KJV)For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
- 10:17 — Romans 15:13 (KJV)Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
- 10:17 — Galatians 2:20 (KJV)I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
- 10:17 — Hebrews 11:6 (KJV)But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
- 10:18 — Matthew 25:34 (KJV)Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
- 10:18 — Matthew 25:34 (KJV)Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
- 10:19 — Romans 15:13 (KJV)Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Notes
- 10:4
"Smith's writings contain many similar phrases as the Book of Mormon...'Or, in other words' is another common phrase of Smith's but not in the Bible. This phrase is in the 1830 Book of Mormon Preface, the Bok of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Smith's revision of the Bible and other writings, such as his 1838 Liberty Jail letter published in the Times and Seasons." Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 40.
See Preface 1830 Book of Mormon; 1 Nephi 8:2; 1 Nephi 10:4; Mosiah 7:27; Alma 32:16; 3 Nephi 6:20; D&C 10:17; D&C 61:23; D&C 95:17; Luke 6:29-30 JST; Luke 17:37 JST; Mark 9:3 JST; Joseph Smith's 1838 Liberty Jail Letter, Times and Seasons, vol. 1 no. 6, p. 83.
For additional examples Smith's common phrases, see: 1 Nephi 19:2; 2 Nephi 28:22; 2 Nephi 26:15, and 2 Nephi 28:16.
- 10:4
Based off of 1 Nephi 10:4 and 19:8, the exact timing of the coming of Christ was known by the ancient Nephites from the time they left the Old World. Strangely, this knowledge seems unknown to Alma, who states, "And now we only wait to hear the joyful news declared unto us by the mouth of angels, of his coming; for the time cometh, we do not know how soon. Would to God that it might be in my day; but let it be sooner or later, in it I will rejoice" (Alma 13:25).
Brent Metcalfe theorizes that because Joseph Smith dictated the opening portion of the Book of Mormon last—a position also held by scholars such as Grant Hardy—he may have forgotten, by the time he composed Nephi, that Alma had stated he was unaware of the timing of Christ’s birth. This explanation is arguably more plausible than assuming that such significant information would not have been preserved through Nephite tradition or written records. -Metcalfe, New Approaches, pp. 417-418.
- 10:4-11
In Ephesians 3, Paul describes the “mystery of Christ” as something hidden from all previous generations but revealed in the apostolic era. In Ephesians 3:4–6, this mystery is that Gentiles are now equal heirs, members, and partakers in God’s promises through Christ—without the former distinctions of Jewish law. Paul reinforces in Colossians 1:26 and Romans 16:25 that this truth was not known in earlier ages, meaning it was not fully understood by Old Testament figures.
This is supported in Acts 10, where Peter struggles to accept Gentile inclusion even after revelation, and in Acts 15, where early Christians debate whether Gentiles must follow Jewish law. Likewise, Hebrews 11 and First Peter indicate that earlier prophets only saw partial foreshadowings of Christ, not the full picture.
In contrast, the Book of Mormon (e.g., 1 Nephi 10; 1 Nephi 14) portrays ancient prophets as clearly teaching about the Messiah, the gospel, and Gentile inclusion with New Testament-level clarity, including ideas similar to Romans 11.
This creates a chronological and theological conflict: if Paul is correct that this mystery was only revealed in the first century, then the Book of Mormon’s depiction of earlier prophets possessing that same knowledge suggests an anachronism—projecting later doctrine into an earlier time.
"When one begins to read the Book of Mormon, if he is well-acquainted with the Bible, he will at once be impressed with the large scale use of the biblical materials in the book. Not only is there an unskilled mimicking of the style of the King James Version, but there is an artificial clarity added to that portion of the Book of Mormon that claims to date from the Old Testament period. This contrived clarity is the result of writing back into that Old Testament period New Testament words, phrases and quotations, as well as the introduction of New Testament concepts and teachings into that time-frame... The usual Mormon defense is that such knowledge was supernaturally made known to the people in America, just as God in a vision showed Ezekiel that Jerusalem was about to fall and the temple to be destroyed, or Peter given a vision of Cornelius before he met him in person. Such an explanation might be more readily accepted if the Book of Mormon had presented its material in the format of a vision. Instead it introduces its material in much the same way that a nineteenth century frontier preacher introduced biblical quotations into his sermons. The frequency with which the Book of Mormon introduces this chronologically misplaced material into its text would require that God supernaturally provided this American colony with virtually the entire New Testament text, as well as those portions of the Old Testament which postdated their departure for America.... passages from the New Testament... are sprinkled generously into the speeches and sermons of the Book of Mormon characters in the same manner as one might find them in the sermons of a Methodist or Baptist preacher of Joseph Smith's day. This type of usage implies an acquaintance with the New Testament books themselves. Only after knowing the entire work can one select from it appropriate words and phrases to employ in this sermonic manner. It is naive to suggest that in every one of those instances God made known each of those biblical phrases and quotations so that the Old Testament Book of Mormon speakers could work them into their message. It is far more reasonable to believe that the insertions of such phrases and quotes came from one who already had the New Testament in hand before him while composing the Book of Mormon... The really fatal blow to the proposal that the New Testament material in the Old Testament portion of the Book of Mormon is due to Joseph Smith's employment of such phrases in the process of translating the book is that such material goes much deeper than the mere use of words and phrases. New Testament concepts, interpretations and theology are all worked into the text itself." -Wesley P. Walters, "The Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon," (Master's thesis, Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, 1981), pp. 7, 10-13.
LDS author Grant Hardy writes, "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