Nephi, in introducing himself, calls attention to the noble character of his parents. He recognizes the advantages that may come to a child through father and mother, both by means of heredity and superior home environments. He knew the value of parental teaching when coupled with a life worthy of emulation. It is characteristically Jewish to honor the parents in this manner. Jewish autobiographers, in beginning their life story, almost always, pay tribute to their lineage. In doing this, Nephi continued a custom that had become a mark of all faithful writers among the Jews. We may consider the fact that Nephi did this, to be a strong bit of evidence supporting the claims made by the Book of Mormon.
Josephus starts the story of his life by stating that he was a descendant of a long line of priests and nobles. Of his father, Matthias, he states that he "was considerable for his extraction but more for his justice and authority in Jerusalem." He then says that he was raised by his brother, Matthias, and was instructed in the sciences. He was, he adds, so precocious, as a child of fourteen years of age that "I was praised by all men in regard to the good affection I had to learning; and priests and the noblest citizens vouchsafed to ask my opinion of things that concerned our laws and our ordinances." Josephus, like Nephi, notes the piety of his ancestors and the knowledge he had received in his childhood.
The author of "Ecclesiasticus" says of his grandfather, a man named Jesus, that he "was a man of great diligence and wisdom among the Hebrews," and the author of "The History of Susanna" says of the heroine that "her parents were righteous and taught their daughter according to the law of Moses."