BOM The Words of Mormon

In today’s reading, The Words of Mormon, a voice from many centuries later, out of chronological order, shows up in the record.  It’s the voice of the prophet-editor Mormon, from whom the Book of Mormon as a whole takes its name.

The little book, known as “The Words of Mormon,” represents a major structural division in the Book of Mormon.  It links the Small Plates of Nephi to the rest of the Book of Mormon, which is made up of Mormon’s abridgment of the Large Plates of Nephi, supplemented by contributions from Mormon’s son, Moroni (including Moroni’s own redaction of what we know as the book of Ether).

The Book of Mormon is a far more complex text than many, even many believers (to say nothing of overeager critics), seem to realize.  This structural complexity is just a part of that overall complexity, but it’s an important one.