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Filter: Book of Mormon Self-Service

Total chapters: 74

Grant Hardy, p. 107-108, Fenton / Hickman, Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon:

The Book of Mormon was much more self-conscious about its status as scripture than the disparate writings that were eventually canonized by the Christian Church.

1 Nephi 1

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi writes in the language of his father (Lehi), the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians. Nephi explains that he makes a record of his own proceedings, and an abridgement of Lehi's writings (see Lost 116 pages of Book of Lehi).

1 Nephi 2

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 The Lord makes promises of blessings regarding the future of infighting between the seed of Nephi and the seed of his brethren, before they have even gotten themselves married, five chapters later.

1 Nephi 5

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Lehi rejoices in the murder of Laban to get the brass plates so JS Jr. can give the world summaries of the Old Testament.

1 Nephi 6

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi writes the things of God, with the purpose to persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham.

1 Nephi 9

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi is forced to give a complicated explanation for the two sets of plates.

1 Nephi 12

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi sees things that JS Jr. just dictated in the latter half of the Book of Mormon (assuming Mosiah priority theory)

1 Nephi 13

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 JS Jr. through Nephi projects his hopes for the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration

1 Nephi 14

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi interprets Isa. 29 (“a voice from the dust,” “a marvellous work and a wonder,” “a book that is sealed”) as referring to the Book of Mormon itself.

1 Nephi 15

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Lehi's seed will receive the gospel through the Gentiles bringing them copies of the Book of Mormon, unless the Bureau of Indian affairs says no to Mormon missionaries.

1 Nephi 19

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi explains the need for two sets of plates, for a wise purpose in the Lord.

1 Nephi 22

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi prophesies of the Book of Mormon, the coming of Christ and the restoration of the gospel in the last days

2 Nephi 3

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Lehi prophesies of Joseph Smith

2 Nephi 5

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi describes the curse of a skin of blackness upon the Lamanites, and the righteousness of the Nephites, and how the Lamanites would serve as a scourge to the Nephites to stir them up in remebrance of the Lord God.

2 Nephi 10

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Jacob speaks of the gathering of Israel and the role of the Gentiles

2 Nephi 26

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi prophesies a bunch of stuff that JS Jr. just dictated in the latter half of the Book of Mormon (assuming Mosiah priority theory)

2 Nephi 27

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 The Book of Mormon prophesies about itself yet again, concerning the three witnesses that JS Jr. will pick.

2 Nephi 28

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi prophesies about the last days and the role of the Gentiles in the latter-day work.

2 Nephi 29

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 The Book of Mormon prophesies about itself again: We Need No More Bible.

2 Nephi 30

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi prophesies about the gathering of Israel and the role of the Gentiles in the last days. Was Christian Zionism a thing in the 19th Century? Yes.

2 Nephi 33

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Nephi concludes his writings with a testimony of the truthfulness of his words and the importance of following Christ, and people accepting the Book of Mormon.

Jacob 7

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Jacob passes the plates to Enos to be the next record keeper. Jacob says Adieu.

Omni 1

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Omni fights with the sword to preserve his people, the Nephites, from falling into the hands of the Lamanites. The internal early prophecy of the Book of Mormon comes true: “Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall not prosper in the land.” Amaron, then Chemish, then Abinadom, then Amaleki take the metal plate records. The righteous Mosiah, king of the Nephites in the land Zarahemla, escapes the land of Nephi into the wilderness, and discovers the people of Zarahemla, descendents of Mulek (Mosiah 25:2–4), who also succeded in making a trans-Oceanic voyage from Jerusalem, but did so with no metal records, and the two groups could not communicate with one another, but they unite together and Mosiah is their king. (What is more self-referential than putting 1. an entire small Book of Mormon (see Book of that name near the end) into the larger Book of Mormon, 2. a miniature Book of Mormon arc (Book of Ether) into the Book of Mormon? 3. Adding one more group that left Jerusalem around the same time of Zedekiah—the descendents of Mulek, not Lehi.) Mosiah is brought a large stone (Mosiah 21:27–28) and translates it by the gift and power of God, left over by the dead millions of the Jaredites mentioned in the Book of Ether. Amaleki fills up the small plates and hands them off the righteous king Benjamin.

Words of Mormon 1

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon is forced to give a complicated explanation for the two sets of plates.

Mosiah 1

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 King Benjamin teaches his sons the language (Hebrew? Reformed Egyptian? both) and prophecies of their fathers, emphasizing the Book of Mormon's repeated theme of record-keeping, plates, etc. As a reminder, the New World is not a place where ancient records are preserved on metal plates.

Mosiah 8

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mentions translating ancient metal records with interpreters, refering to the story of the Book of Mormon itself, in a very self-referential manner.

Mosiah 17

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Alma escapes and writes down the words of Abinadi, so we know what he preached from the Christian Bible.

Mosiah 19

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 A prophecy comes to pass, from a few chapters ago, concerning King Noah dying by fire.

Mosiah 21

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 The 24 Jaredite plates are mentioned. How much could have been written on them, really? This reflects a belief at the time that some ancient languages could express complex ideas succinctly, for example 1 Nephi 1 where Nephi says as much. Also, King Mosiah's gift as a seer is mentioned.

Mosiah 25

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 King Mosiah gathers the people of Zarahemla (Mulekites) and the people of Nephi into two bodies and recounts the records of Zeniff, and then the account of Alma escaping from bondage.

Mosiah 28

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 King Mosiah translates the Nephite and Jaredite plates.

Alma 9

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Internal references to Lehi telling the people to stay righteous or be destroyed, about to come true.

Alma 16

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Makes a prophecy that will likely come true soon, in a hundred pages, or whatever.

Alma 23

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 “The curse of God did no more follow them.” It's not clear exacly what this implies. Did their dark skin turn white (cf. 2 Nephi) or something more mundane?

Alma 25

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Internal prophecies about death by fire (from Abinadi) come true. “Now Abinadi was the first that suffered death by fire because of his belief in God; now this is what he meant, that many should suffer death by fire, according as he had suffered.”

Alma 33

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Alma quotes a lost extra-Biblical ancient prophet Zenos (a callback to 1 Nephi 19 and Jacob 5, but more easily explained by Mosiah priority as being written into that part later, as Zenos seems to be invented for this particular chapter, down to this part: “thou art merciful unto thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee and not of men,” which refers to the Zoramites Alma is preaching to, but straight out of the Sermon on the Mount, in actuality.)

Alma 34

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Quotes Zenos and Zenock from previous chapter, Alma 33, in support of a merciful Son of God messiah.

Alma 36

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 At the end, Alma reiterates one of the main messages of the Book of Mormon, from 1 Ne. onwards, “Inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land; ... inasmuch as ye will not keep the commandments of God ye shall be cut off from his presence.” Literal prosperity gospel, by the way.

Alma 37

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Alma commands Helaman to take the records, including the brass plates (Old Testament taken from Jerusalem by Lehi and Nephi) and keep them bright. Maybe they should have used gold instead of brass, which doesn't tarnish. Alma also speculates about the importance of the record, but forebears to avoid giving away too much of what is obviously to come, in terms of internal self-propechy.

Alma 38

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 At the start of the sermon, Alma reiterates the same phrasing he told Helaman, which comes from 1 Ne. and onwards, “Inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land; ... inasmuch as ye will not keep the commandments of God ye shall be cut off from his presence.” Literal prosperity gospel, again, only a few chapters later.

Alma 45

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Alma prophesies about the future of the Nephites, and the coming of Christ. Alma hands off the records to Helaman, so the rest of the Book of Alma was written by Helaman.

Alma 46

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 A remnant of Joseph (Lehi is supposedly a descendant) will be preserved.

Alma 48

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Long paean on George Washington Captain Moroni, who gives his name to later Moroni (son of Mormon) at the end of Nephite civilization, which ties this up in a bow, as the chapter ends with the repeated idea that “if they should keep his commandments they should prosper in the land” (spoilers: they don't ultimately).

Alma 62

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Helaman returns to the ministry, they did establish again the church of God, throughout the land. Then the people of Nephi began to prosper again in the land. Uh oh, we know where this could lead, when they wax strong and prosper in the land. But luckily they were not prideful but humble and remembered who had delivered them, the Lord their God.

Alma 63

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Shiblon and later Helaman take possession of the sacred (metal) records.

Helaman 13

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Samuel the Lamanite prophesies of destruction as the signs of Christ's birth and death, as well as of the end of the narrative four hundred years after the birth of Christ, a nice thousand year arc.

Helaman 14

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Samuel the Lamanite prophesies of the signs of Christ's birth, including the day and the night and the day that were as one day.

Helaman 15

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Samuel the Lamanite recounts how the Lamanites were redeemed through the preaching of the Nephites, and that the Nephites were judged more harshly because they had more to lose, and prophesies of the restoration of the Lamanites (quoting Zenos from Jacob 5, which according to Mosiah priority, had not been dictated yet) in the last days by JS Jr. and his Church.

3 Nephi 2

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 “Nephi, who was the father of Nephi, who had the charge of the records, did not return to the land of Zarahemla, and could nowhere be found in all the land.” Mysterious disappearing prophets trope.

3 Nephi 5

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon prophesies about the Book of Mormon itself.

3 Nephi 6

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 The Nephites begin to rebuild their society after the Gaddianton robbers are defeated, but this prosperity gospel inevitably leads to pride, which leads to destruction.

3 Nephi 10

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Internal prophecies of the Book of Mormon are fulfilled.

3 Nephi 11

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Book of Mormon prophecies are fulfilled, that Jesus would come. Which was obvious for an author writing in the 19th century. More back-dated prophecies.

3 Nephi 16

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 More Book of Mormon prophesying about itself and the Lamanites and the Gentiles, etc.

3 Nephi 21

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 More about the New Jerusalem (which hasn't happened yet) and more self-prophecy about the Book of Mormon.

3 Nephi 23

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Jesus commands the Nephites to backdate a prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite, back in the Book of Helaman.

3 Nephi 28

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Jesus gives the three Nephite disciples the power to never taste of death. This tantalizing chapter spawned hundreds or thousands of faith-promoting rumors of the three Nephites appearing to white Latter-day Saints.

3 Nephi 29

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 The Book of Mormon predicts things involving Zionism and conflates this with JS Jr. restoration attempts

4 Nephi 1

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Once everyone was righteous, after Christ came and taught the gospel among them personally, “The people of Nephi did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly fast, and became an exceedingly fair and delightsome people. ... There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.” They all became fair and delightsome when there were no more Lamanites, no more “-ites.” To be clear, that means they returned to being white, like the “white, exceedingly fair, beautiful, delightsome” Jewish / Israelite / Lehite (1 Nephi 11, 1 Nephi 13) people they started out as. See Racism for a fully contextualized overall of all of this, across the entire thousand-year Lehite narrative, prophecies by Nephi, centuries earlier, the original dark skin curse, etc. By the end of the chapter, the Lamanite bad-guys have re-emerged, one-upped only by the Gaddiantion boogeymen.

Mormon 1

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon introduces himself and his record, explaining the importance of the Nephite history. The Book of Mormon as a whole is very self-referential but putting a smaller Book of Mormon into the Book of Mormon is next level.

Mormon 2

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon mentions other records on the plates of Nephi, but on the abridged records (comprising the English text of Mormon ch. 1 through ch. 9, he forbears.

Mormon 3

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon recounts the history of the Nephites and the Lamanites, and writes to them, to the twelve tribes of Israel, to the Jews, to “all the ends of the earth”.

Mormon 4

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon goes to the hill Shim, and takes all the records which Ammaron had hid up unto the Lord.

Mormon 5

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 The Book of Mormon prophesies about itself yet again, reiterating Nephi's vision in 1 Nephi 13. It sort of makes sense to put this here, as the Lehite civialization dwindles.

Mormon 6

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon hides up the records in the Hill Cumorah, “save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni.”

Mormon 7

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon writes about the Lamanites and how if they believe the Bible they will believe the Book of Mormon. The 1981 heading says All who believe the Bible will believe the Book of Mormon, which is false (the text, in context, says the "the remnant of this people" or Lamanites or Native Americans). This is also false because probably a billion people believe the Bible but do not believe the Book of Mormon.

Mormon 8

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Moroni, one of the last surviving Nephites, finishes the record of his father Mormon. He spends a bunch of words saying he has run out of metal and metal ore, and that he would write more but for lack of space. But somehow he has space to continue to prophecy about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, increasing the amount of self-reference by yet another chapter. (He also has space for The Book of Ether, and space for The Book of Moroni, where conveniently he crams in a bunch of miscelaneous but important administrative stuff for the 1830's church JS Jr. is about to found.)

Mormon 9

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Mormon writes about the coming of Christ and the destruction of the Nephite nation and the Gentiles who don't believe.

Ether 5

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Moroni prophesies about the Book of Mormon itself, and the three witnesses, who happened to be scribes to the Book of Mormon (Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer) as JS Jr. was dictating it, in the 19th century.

Ether 8

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 What is more self-referential than putting an entire, second, miniature Book of Mormon into the Book of Mormon? Putting an entire miniature narrative of the entire Book of Mormon promised-land trope, with a different name, into the book—namely the Book of Ether.

Ether 11

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Moroni describes the continued rise and fall of the Jaredite civilization, including a bunch of unnamed prophets, who prophesy a bunch of stuff internal to the Book of Mormon (arrival of Lehites to get the same cyclical treatment), through to the birth of Ether.

Ether 13

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Moroni prophesies about the New Jerusalem, which is to be built in America, and the Second Coming of Christ, neither of which have happened yet. Any day now. Ether writes a ton of stuff that will only be abridged by Moroni.

Moroni 1

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Moroni writes to the Gentiles of 1830s United States of America, while saying he is writing to the Lamanites (ancestors of the Native Americans).

Moroni 9

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 More sacred records to deliver from one prophet-historian to another.

Moroni 10

Book of Mormon Self-Service

 Moroni prophesies about the Book of Mormon itself and how people will receive it. He writes about the gifts of the Spirit and the importance of charity by quoting the Old World Paul the Apostle somehow, from the ancient New World.
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