Here ends the saga of the plates. Nephi began their story as a diligent but youthful member of the family, considerably below the status of his elder brothers. He ends the story of the brass plates as the principal character in his family’s exodus. He began as a precocious youth and ends as someone with the spiritual sensitivity to be guided unerringly by the Spirit, with the resoluteness to kill when necessary, and with the characteristics of personality and persuasion to exercise leadership among his reluctant brothers. Note that it was not only Lehi who “searched” the brass plates. Nephi himself also pored over them: “we had obtained the records… and searched them” (v. 21).
Text: The verse is the chapter’s end in both the 1830 and 1879 editions. What events did Nephi include as his narrative unit?
Nephi begins with his father’s history because it is Lehi’s story, as prophet, patriarch, and leader of their departure from Jerusalem. Nevertheless, even in this first chapter, the story is Nephi’s, chronicling the gradual shift in Nephi’s position from younger son to spiritual leader of the New World portion of their exodus. This chapter focuses on a pivotal event: Nephi’s role as the brothers return to Jerusalem for the plates. The chapter ends with their successful return.
After this point, Nephi has a new position in the clan. The ending of the story of the plates is a firm end to the old Nephi. Even decades after the fact, Nephi remembered this episode as pivotal in his life, a discrete unit in his narrative.