THE HISTORIANS OF THE NEPHITES--THE PLATES OF NEPHI--LIST OF THEIR
CUSTODIANS--THEIR LENGTHENED YEARS.
Shortly after the arrival of Lehi and his little colony on the promised
land, Nephi received a commandment from the Lord to make certain
"plates of ore" upon which to engrave a record of the doings of his
people. Some time later, or between thirty and forty years after
the departure of Lehi from Jerusalem, Nephi was further instructed
regarding the records. The Lord said unto him, Make other plates; and
thou shalt engraven many things upon them which are good in my sight,
for the profit of thy people. Nephi, to be obedient to the commandment
of the Lord, went and made these other plates, and upon them were
engraven the records from which the first portions of the Book of
Mormon are translated; or those parts known to us as the First and
Second Books of Nephi, and the Books of Jacob, Enos, Jarom, and Omni.
The two sets of plates manufactured by Nephi were both used as records
of his people and called by his name; but their contents were not
identical. Upon the first set was engraven the political history of
the Nephites, upon the second their religious growth and development.
The one described the acts of their kings, and the wars, contentions
and destructions which came upon the nation; the other contained the
story of the dealings of the Lord with that people, the ministry of his
servants, the teachings and prophecies. Of the contents of the first we
know but little, simply that which we gather from incidental remarks
made in the second; but the second is given to us in its completeness
in the translation contained in the Book of Mormon.
It would have been very interesting to students of history to have
received the detailed account of the reigns of the kings who governed
the people of Nephi, that is, to those who would accept these records
as of God; but it was far more important that those most sacred truths
contained in the revelations of heaven to that people should be made
manifest to this generation. The one would be a satisfaction to our
intellectual natures, but the other is necessary to our eternal
salvation; for the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel,
and also many things plain and most precious that have been taken out
of the Jewish scriptures, through the craft or ignorance of apostate
Jews and Christians. For this most important reason those portions of
the Nephite records that are now contained in the Book of Mormon were
first revealed; we should never have been willing to have accepted
the others without them, for it is upon the basis of religion, not of
history, that the Latter-day Saints accept the Book of Mormon. We also
have the promise that other plates will be translated and given unto
us in the Lord's due time, and doubtless among them will be those first
plates upon which Nephi recorded, with such detail, the travels and
labors in the wilderness of his father and associates.
The plates of Nephi containing the sacred annals of his people were not
entirely filled with engravings until about two hundred years before
Christ. They were made by Nephi between the years 570 and 560 before
the advent of the Redeemer; but the record on them goes back to the
time when Lehi left Jerusalem, or 600 B. C., so they in reality contain
the history of God's dealings with that branch of the house of Israel
for about four hundred years.
When Nephi died he transferred these sacred records to the care of his
brother Jacob. From that time to the time that Moroni finally hid them
in the hill Cumorah, they were in the hands of four families, who had
charge of them, as near as can be told from the abridgment that we have
in the Book of Mormon, as follows: Jacob and his descendants held them
from B. C. 546 to about B. C. 200, when they were transferred to King
Benjamin, who, with his son Mosiah, the younger, held them until B.
C. 91, at which time they were given into the care of Alma, the chief
judge, and he and his posterity retained them until 320 years after the
advent of the Messiah. After these, Mormon and his son, Moroni, were
the custodians until the close of the record, in the year 421 after
Christ.
In the table that follows, B. C. signifies before Christ, and A. C.
after Christ, counting from the true date of his birth as given in the
Book of Mormon, and not from the accepted Christian Anno Domini (year
of our Lord), which is now very generally supposed to be from two to
four years wrong. In those places where no date is given, the desired
information is not afforded in the Book of Mormon, and therefore can
only be guessed at. We therefore prefer to leave such places blank.
It will also be remembered that Mormon, just before the great last
battle, which resulted in the extinction of the Nephite nation, hid up
in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to him by
the hand of the Lord, save it were the few plates which he gave to his
son Moroni.
The following are the names of the Nephite historians, with the times
during which they held the records:
Nephi, from----to 546 B. C.
Jacob, from 546 to----
Enos, from----to 422.
Jarom, from 422 to 362.
Omni, from 362 to 318.
Amaron, from 318 to 280.
Chemish, from 280 to----
Abinadom, from----to----
Amaleki, from----to 200 (about).
King Benjamin, from 200 to 125.
King Mosiah, from 125 to 91.
Alma (the younger), from 91 to 73.
Helaman (the elder), from 73 to 57.
Shiblon, from 57 to 53.
Helaman (the younger), from 53 to 39.
Nephi, from 39 to 1.
Nephi (the disciple), from 1 to 34 A. C.
Nephi, from 34 to 110.
Amos, from 110 to 194.
Amos (the younger), from 194 to 306.
Ammaron, from 306 to 320.
Mormon, from 320 to 385.
Moroni, from 385 to 421.
In the above table, one thing will most certainly strike the attention
of the observant reader. It is the lengthened period that some of the
historians held the records. Jacob and his son Enos held them one
hundred and twenty-four years. Jarom held them sixty. In this fact
we find a very pleasing confirmation of the statement of Nephi that
during the time he and his brethren were wandering in the wilderness,
living on raw meat and suffering all kinds of hardships, fatigue and
privations, the Lord so greatly blessed the women in the company that
they were strong, yea, even like unto the men, having an abundance of
milk to suckle the babes born unto them. Jacob was born at this time,
and doubtless inherited an exceedingly strong constitution, which he
transmitted to his posterity.
The second epoch during which the longevity of the custodians of the
plates is remarkable is during that reign of universal righteousness
which followed the ministry of the crucified Savior. By living unto the
Lord in all things their lives were marvelously prolonged; especially
were those of the children born during the continuance of this happy
and holy period and before the effects of the after apostasy had begun
to work on them. Thus Nephi, the son of Nephi the disciple, had charge
of the records seventy-six years, his son Amos, eighty-four years, and
Amos, the son of the last named, the wonderful period of one hundred
and twelve years; or father, son and grandson, three generations, a
total of two hundred and seventy-two years. What a powerful sermon this
one fact preaches in favor of entire submission of body and soul to the
perfect and perfecting law of God!