We see another shift in Lehi’s discussion. Where he begins with the person of the Messiah, or Jehovah come to earth, he prophecies that the Messiah will come not only for Israel, but also for the gentiles. The mention of the gentiles in verse 11 allows Lehi to turn the lesson to the future of the gentiles, which he begins in verse 12.
Lehi’s prophecy moves beyond Israel, and includes the gentiles. Specifically, Lehi notes that they will be “compared like unto an olive tree, whose branches should be broken off and should be scattered upon all the face of the earth.” Although Romans 11:11 cites an allegory of an olive tree, Paul is only interested in the gentiles as wild branches being grafted in. Lehi specifically speaks of branches broken off and scattered.
This is a clear indication that Lehi has read Zenos’s allegory of the olive tree as recorded on the brass plates. There is enough in Paul’s allegory to suggest that it descended from this earlier version, but Zenos’s version is much more complicated, and more related to a scattering.
In the land in which Zenos gave the allegory, it is possible that it was understood as discussing the scattering and gathering of the ten tribes. That would suggest that Zenos would be dated to somewhere after the Assyrian invasion and at least prior to the final writing on the plates of brass.