The Book of Mormon is a sacred record of peoples in ancient America,
and was engraved upon sheets of metal. Four kinds of metal record
plates are spoken of in the book itself
- The Plates of Nephi, which were of two kinds: the
Small Platesa and the
Large Platesb. The former were more particularly devoted to the spiritual matters and the ministry and teachings of the prophets, while the latter were occupied mostly by a secular history of the peoples concerned (1 Nephi 9: 2-4). From the time of Mosiah, however, the large plates also included items of major spiritual importance.
- The Plates of
Mormonc, which consist of an
abridgment by Mormon from the Large Plates of Nephi, with many commentaries. These plates also contained a continuation of the history by Mormon and additions by his son Moroni.
- The Plates of
Etherc, which present a history of the Jaredites. This record was abridged by Moroni, who inserted comments of his own and incorporated the record with the general history under the title “Book of Ether.”
- The Plates of
Brassc brought by the people of Lehi from Jerusalem in 600 B.C. These contained “the five books of Moses, . . . And also a record of the Jews from the beginning, . . . down to the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah; And also the prophecies of the holy prophets” (1 Nephi 5: 11-13). Many quotations from these plates, citing Isaiah and other biblical and nonbiblical prophets, appear in the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon comprises fifteen main parts or divisions, known, with one exception, as books, each designated by the name of its principal author. The first portion (the first six books, ending with Omni) is a translation from the Small Plates of Nephi. Between books of Omni and Mosiah is an insert called The Words of Mormon. This insert connects the record engraved on the Small Plates with Mormon’s abridgment of the Large Plates.
The longest portion, from Mosiah to Mormon, chapter 7, inclusive, is a translation of Mormon’s abridgment of the Large Plates of Nephi. The concluding portion, from Mormon, chapter 8, to the end to the volume, was engraved by Mormon’s son Moroni, who, after finishing the record of his father’s life, made an abridgment of the Jaredite record (as the Book of Ether) and later added the parts known as the Book of Moroni.
In or about the year A.D. 421, Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophet-historians, sealed the sacred record and hid it up unto the Lord, to be brought forth in the latter days, as predicted by the voice of God through his ancient prophets. In A.D. 1823, this same Moroni, then a resurrected personage, visited the Prophet Joseph Smith and subsequently delivered the engraved plates to him.
About this edition: Some minor errors in the text have been
perpetuated in past editions of the Book of Mormon. This edition
contains corrections that seem appropriate to bring the material into
conformity with prepublication manuscripts and early editions edited
by the Prophet Joseph Smith.
[NOTE: There are still some errors to be
found in the Book of Mormon. Some caused inadvertantly during Elder Orson
Pratt's division into 'scriptural' verses and chapters which deter the
plain understanding of the text and also some errors of Mormon's engraving
which have come through in the translation unnoticed. And even some from
the well meaning suggested dates, footnotes and crossreferences supplied
for the purpose of aiding the study of the book, yet they are not perfect
as prepared by human hands and therefore not without err. Thus the 'errors
of men' are there in the book, but it is a book of God's word and the wise
will not fault it because men have inadvertantly been human in its
preparaton.
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a the Small Plates The
Small Plates of Nephi are translated and contained in today's Book of
Mormon as its first 6 books from 1 Nephi to Omni. For a wise purpose
in the Lord, to replace the lost 116 pages first translated from
Mormon's abridgment lost my Martin Harris, the Small Plates of Nephi
contained the more sacred events of the people of Nephi for
approximately the same span of time of the lost 116 pages.
b the Large Plates
The Large Plates of Nephi was the more detailed history of the
Nephites from which Mormon primarily took his abridgment. With the 116
pages lost, Mormon's abridgment in the Book of Mormon today consists of
seven books of the Book of Mormon from the Words of Mormon to the smaller
internally contained subset Book of Mormon.
c The Plates of Mormon
The plates of Mormon as Mormon's less than
1/100th part abridgement taken from the
Nephite records. It is highly condensed and has left out much making it
essentially impossible to obtain the geography of the Book of Mormon
accurately from the Book of Mormon abridgement.
d The Plates of Ether
The plates of Ether are 24 plates of Gold upon which Ether gives an
account of the Jaredite history and of the Vision of All which he
had received. Moroni adridges these plates into the Book of Ether
which DOES NOT contain the Vision of All, which is still sealed to
come forth at a later date. Moroni's abridgement is a condensation
from Ether's condensed history of his Jaredite people.
e The Plates of Brass
The brass plates of Laban are the Hebrew scriptures from the
perspective of the tribe of Ephraim and/or Joseph, as it was Laban's
family of the House of Joseph who had kept them. They were engraven in
Egyptian and contained a number of prophets of the House of Joseph which
the Jewish Bible records had not maintained.
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