A Note on Benjamin and Lehi

Mosiah 1:2-6, which describes how King Benjamin taught his sons, seems to be patterned after Lehi's teaching of his son Nephi. The italicized words in the extracts below highlight the parallels in the two accounts.

Both passages describe teaching and mention "fathers" or "parents" (the Hebrew uses one word for both), the name(s) of the son(s), "Jerusalem," the "language of the Egyptians," and the "mysteries of God" and declare that the record is "true." This is one of many other examples of how Nephite writers relied on earlier records as they recorded their history. Finding such direct correspondence in widely separated passages of the Book of Mormon is particularly significant when we realize that evidence suggests that Joseph Smith translated the book of Mosiah and all that follows it before turning to translate the small plates containing the record of Nephi.1

Mormon discovered the small plates as he was recording events from the life of King Benjamin (Words of Mormon 1:3). Perhaps it was Benjamin's use of the opening verses of 1 Nephi that prompted Mormon to search among the Nephite records to find the earlier account. While the kings kept the large plates of Nephi, the small plates were passed along in the family of Nephi's brother Jacob until Amaleki turned them over to King Benjamin (Omni 1:25). It is significant that Benjamin's use of Nephi's opening words are found at the point in the record where the king would have recently received the small plates.²

1. See John W. Welch and Tim Rathbone, "How Long Did It Take to Translate the Book of Mormon?" in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 1-8. The entry in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism on "Book of Mormon Translation by Joseph Smith" was based on this article. See also Royal Skousen, ed., The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2000), 33.
2. We have a parallel situation regarding the record of Ether. Soon after translating that record, which details the Jaredite contentions for the kingship (Mosiah 28:17), Mosiah informed his people of the potential dangers should one of his sons become king and his brother fight against him (Mosiah 29:5-13). See the discussion in my FARMS Update "King Mosiah and the Judgeship," Insights, November 2000.