Lucky for us, Nephi left out a lot of shit his dad said while camping out in the valley of Lemuel.
And all these things did my father see, and hear, and speak, as he dwelt in a tent, in the valley of Lemuel. 1 Nephi 9:1a
He just didn't have room for it on his plates.
And also a great many more things, which cannot be written upon these plates. 1 Nephi 9:1He only had room for important stuff -- like what to name his plates.
But first, Nephi tells us that these plates (the ones he's writing now) are not the plates that have the history of his people written on them.
And now, as I have spoken concerning these plates, behold they are not the plates upon which I make a full account of the history of my people. 1 Nephi 9:2a
No, those plates are called the plates of Nephi. That's why he calls them the plates of Nephi. He named them after his own name, which (in case you've forgotten) is Nephi.
For the plates upon which I make a full account of my people I have given the name of Nephi; wherefore, they are called the plates of Nephi, after mine own name. 1 Nephi 9:2b
There are other plates that are also called the plates of Nephi, but these plates (the ones Nephi is talking about now) are not those plates of Nephi, although they are also called the plates of Nephi.
And these plates also are called the plates of Nephi. 1 Nephi 9:2c
Now that we know which plates of Nephi Nephi is talking about, he can tell us about them.
First of all, God gave Nephi a commandment to write down the ministry of his people on these plates (which Nephi called the plates of Nephi).
Nevertheless, I have received a commandment of the Lord that I should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people. 1 Nephi 9:3
God told Nephi to make two sets of plates: one for "for the more part of the ministry" and the other set "for the more part of the reign of the kings and the wars and contentions" of his people.
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; and the other plates are for the more part of the reign of the kings and the wars and contentions of my people. 1 Nephi 9:4
God told Nephi to make both sets of plates "for a wise purpose." But Nephi had no idea what that purpose was.
Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. 1 Nephi 9:5
And thus it is and so on and so forth. Amen.
But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen. 1 Nephi 9:6
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3 comments:
...but, of course, Joseph Smith knew the purpose, because he needed to weasel his way out of a clusterfuck.
Smith wrote in the bit about the two different plates after one of his followers' irate wife stole the first hundred and sixteen pages of the BoM from him and challenged him to reproduce them, if he was so divinely inspired; Smith then announced that, through the esteemed foresight of God, "the angel Moroni" had presented him with an entirely new set of plates to "retranslate" the stolen text from.
Of course, he couldn't remember everything; hence, the bullshit about the two different plates containing two different sets of histories, the obvious padding about "Nephi's plates of Nephi, called after Nephi", and why the vast spew of verbiage from Lehi ends abruptly as we get a 19th-century CliffsNotes version. ;-)
Here's a slightly more in-depth look at Smith's ass-covering handiwork, from a 1989 Salt Lake publication: http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no72.htm
hahahahaha 'Old Joe the weasel and his clusterfuck', sounds like a bedtime story for ex-mos.
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