Lehi sees and prophesies not only the coming of the Messiah but also the future religious history of the world.
History/text: Verse 10 introduces the apparently Christian title the “Lamb of God.” It appears anachronistic, but is attested from around a hundred years before Christ. The Testament of Joseph is one of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, a document that may have been written between 107 and 137 B.C. In these testaments each of the twelve sons of Israel tells his own story. Joseph’s testament includes the following very Christian-sounding text:
And I saw that from Judah was born a virgin wearing a linen garment, and from her was born a lamb, without spot; and on his left hand there was as it were a lion; and all the beasts rushed against him, and the lamb overcame them, and destroyed them and trod them under foot. And because of him the angels and men rejoiced, and all the land. And these things shall come pass in their season, in the last days. Do ye therefore, my children, observe the commandments of the Lord, and honour Levi and Judah; for from them shall arise unto you the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, one who saveth all the Gentiles and Israel.
John W. Welsh notes that when J. C. O’Neill examined this document he noted the Christian flavor, but concluded (in Welsh’s words): “No Christian editor would have added the references to the Lamb of God to the Jewish Testament of Joseph, because doing so would presuppose two Messiahs (the lion and the lamb figures), a non-Christian tradition that would detract from Christ’s preeminence in the work of salvation.”
According to Kevin Christensen:
[Margaret] Barker also places emphasis on the figures of the servant in the Old Testament and the Lamb of God in the New Testament.
Wordplay was characteristic of the prophets and visionaries. The Aramaic word tly’ can mean either “Lamb” or “Servant.”… John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), by which he must have meant the Servant.
Most of the evidence for the Servant is found in the prophecies of Isaiah. There are four passages, usually known as the Servant Songs, which describe him (Isa. 42:1–4, 49:1–4, 50:4–9, 52:13–53:12).
The Lamb is the key figure in the Book of Revelation and the Servant is the key figure in other parts of the New Testament. Jesus is depicted as the Servant. At the baptism, Jesus heard the voice from heaven speaking the words of the first Servant Song: “Thou art my beloved son, with thee I am well pleased” (a version of Isaiah 42:1, quoted in Mark 1:11). John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb, but Jesus himself heard the words of the Servant Song.
While we may first think that this epithet is out of place, it may instead represent an authentic part of the symbolic associations between the redemptive Messiah and the sacrificial lamb.
Text: This verse has the place name Bethabara, following John 1:28. The earliest Greek manuscripts support Bethany rather than Bethabara, although there is some textual evidence for Bethabara. I suggest that the presence of Bethabara in the Book of Mormon is directly related to the presence of that name in the printed text of John 1:28 and does not indicate any corroboration that Bethabara is the preferred reading.