Internal consistency between 1 Nephi 6, 9 and Jacob 1

Compare 1 Nephi 6:6

Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men.

and 1 Nephi 9:4

Upon the other plates should be engraven an account of the reign of the kings, and the wars and contentions of my people; wherefore these plates are for the more part of the ministry 

with Jacob 1:1-2

Nephi gave me, Jacob, a commandment concerning the small plates, upon which these things are engraven. And he gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious; that I should not touch, save it were lightly, concerning the history of this people which are called the people of Nephi.

1 Nephi 3:7

This is one of the most famous verses in the entire Book of Mormon. Much wisdom packed in a few words. We sing about it in Primary and memorize it in Seminary. As I have read the Book of Mormon, I have noticed Nephi repeating this several times. It seems to be one of his favorite scriptures too! Well, at least it seems to be a principle he felt strongly about and a point he really wants to get across to his readers. Let us first review

I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Only 8 verses later, Nephi repeats the last part of it

But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.

Nephi's mother repeats it in 1 Nephi 5:8

I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected my sons, and delivered them out of the hands of Laban, and given them power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them.

The only difference is "given them power" instead of "prepared a way". A variant of this theme in 1 Nephi 9:6

But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men;

Not only the thing which he has commanded but "all his works". Again, in 1 Nephi 17:3

And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them

"Provide means", "give them power" or "prepare a way". These are just different wordings of the same fundamental principle that Nephi is really eager to convey to his readers and demonstrate how it has applied to his life.

Mormon breaks the fourth wall, part 1

In 3 Nephi 5, Mormon breaks from the narrative to give the reader a clear look at who he is and why he is creating this abridgment.

The idea of Mormon as narrator is a subtle complexity in the Book of Mormon (especially since he isn't the only narrator).  Although 3 Nephi 5 isn't the only time Mormon breaks from the narrative to point things out to us ("and thus we see ... "), whenever he does, there is usually a good reason, which he tells us.

In this example, which comprises 3 Nephi 5:8-26, Mormon begins the aside with an explanation that his record is only a cursory summary of the history of the people, but he goes on to offer us several intriguing details about his life and the mission to which he has been called.

What follows in the rest of this post and all of part 2 is the entire passage (verses 8-26) interrupted by comments from me about what I consider to be the significant details we get about Mormon from these verses:

8 And there had many things transpired which, in the eyes of some, would be great and marvelous; nevertheless, they cannot all be written in this book; yea, this book cannot contain even a hundredth part of what was done among so many people in the space of twenty and five years;
9 But behold there are records which do contain all the proceedings of this people; and a shorter but true account was given by Nephi.
10 Therefore I have made my record of these things according to the record of Nephi, which was engraven on the plates which were called the plates of Nephi.

In verse 9, the Nephi who is mentioned is Nephi, who was the son of Nephi, who was the son of Helaman, who was the son of Helaman, who was the son of Alma, who was the son of Alma. (That's fun, isn't it?)  Apparently this Nephi kept a more detailed record of the proceedings of the people along with the "record of Nephi" which was created by the original Nephi (see 1 Nephi 9:2 and 2 Nephi 4:14). Here we are 625 years after Lehi left Jerusalem and the record of Nephi is still being actively kept.

11 And behold, I do make the record on plates which I have made with mine own hands.

I consider this to be very significant.  The original Nephi made plates (see 1 Nephi 1:17 and 1 Nephi 19:1). Other authors speak of running out of space on the records, implying they didn't have the means or knowledge to make more plates. See Jarom 1:14, for example.

12 And behold, I am called Mormon, being called after the land of Mormon, the land in which Alma did establish the church among the people, yea, the first church which was established among them after their transgression.

Verse 12 contains a great example of internal consistency.  We know from Mosiah 18:4 that "the king" (possibly Noah?) had named a certain area "Mormon," and that Alma and his first followers fled there as a place of resort. We also know that it was in the waters of Mormon that these first believers were baptized.  This was the beginning of a new church in the land. We also know that the name was significant to Mormon as he recorded this mass conversion experience (see Mosiah 18:30).

In part 2, we'll continue looking at this long and fascinating aside.

"thus it is. Amen"

This phrase just caught my attention. We find 6 of them in the Book of Mormon in total (also counting "thus it is written. Amen" in Alma 6. They are very unique (we don't find them in the Bible for instance) and they always mark the end of a chapter, i.e. the original chapters/sections which seem to have been on the plates, not the modern BoM chapters.

I learned from Hugh Nibley that the "iw-f-pw" in Egyptian, which typically marks the end of ancient Egyptian literature, can be translated to "thus it is". Perhaps this was common on the brass plates which were written with Egyptian script (Mosiah 1:4)?

According to a Jewish Rabbi, the "Amen" afterwards means "truly" or "verily" but is also acrostic for the phrase, "El Melech Ne'eman", which means "God is a faithful king". The phrase fits very well in these passages when reading the context. For instance in Alma 13:9, the righteous people become high priests but God is the king. Also, the last word before this phrase is "truth", which is related to the word, "amen" in Hebrew.

"...and thus it is. Amen" seems to be a formal way for the Nephite record keepers to end a section, combining the Egyptian and the Hebrew phrases.

A list of these end-note phrases:

• 1st Nephi 9. Nephi ending his comments of the plates and possibly the abbreviation of Lehi's record
• 1st Nephi 14. Nephi ending the description of his vision
• 1st Nephi 22. End of 1st Nephi
• Alma 6. Conclusion of Alma's preaching in Zarahemla and introduction to his preaching in Gideon.
• Alma 13. This one is interesting. Mormon seems to copy directly from Alma's record. "I" in verse 1 would be Alma. So Alma is making this section break in the middle of his sermon to the people in Ammonihah. I don't know why...
• Helaman 12. The whole chapter is a "thus we see..." commentary by Mormon. He uses this phrase to conclude his remarks before he continues the narrative.