By comparing the term “exceeding young” (1 Nephi 2:16) referring to Nephi at this time with a reference to him as a “man” given later on in 1 Nephi 4:31 (“and now I, Nephi, being a man large in stature” -- italics added), some have theorized that a number of years had passed in between these two verses. However, immediately after verse 2:16, which uses the term “exceeding young,” the text says that Nephi, “having great desires to know of the mysteries of God … did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me.” Soon after this experience, Nephi explains that “I returned from speaking with the Lord to the tent of my father.” Lehi then commanded Nephi to return for the plates, and this trip for the plates is the account that contains Nephi’s reference to himself as a “man.” Because Nephi parallels being “exceedingly young” with being “large in stature,” and because we don‘t know exactly the amount of time that passed between Nephi’s descriptive terms “exceedingly young” and “man”; perhaps we can entertain the idea that the word “stature” connotes more than just physical size: (1) Nephi, by being large in “stature,” might have been more capable than his older brothers not only physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to do all that the Lord required of him; but much more important; and (2) Nephi might have felt he was “exceedingly young” because it was “exceedingly” unusual for a “man” at his “young” age to be visited by the Lord (2:16). Nephi came to know that even for a man “large in stature,” in order to do things properly, he needed to receive ”much strength of the Lord" (1 Nephi 4:31). [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]