Verse 33 concludes the aside, and Nephi will return to his prophetic future history in the next verse. As his conclusion, Nephi emphasizes the point of the aside - that of the doctrinal necessity of inclusion. Christ “inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness, and he denieth none that come unto him.”
Once again in this aside Nephi’s text echoes the language (and concerns) of Paul:
Gal. 3:28
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
This unstated tension between the covenant of Israel and the gospel of the gentiles is an undercurrent in some of Nephi’s writings. It is, of course, the very tension that Paul had to deal with in his apostleship.
It is possible that the vocabulary of Paul comes into play in Nephi’s discourse because Nephi must also integrate a gentile population into the people of the covenant. I have already suggested that Jacob’s discourse was intended as instructions for integrating a gentile influx of population. Nephi’s sensitivity to the issues of gentile Christianity would appear out of place for a cultural Jew. Even with the promise of the Messiah, Nephi’s understanding of his people in the context of the covenant (witnessed by his integrating his people into the prophecies of Isaiah) would suggest that he could be seen in that same context - a Jew having hope in his Messiah.
Even the knowledge Nephi has of the mission of the earthly Jesus does not preclude Nephi’s Jewish interpretation of that mission, as Jesus mission was first to the Jews. The early Jewish Christian movement would not have seen that large a division between Torah and Jesus’ teachings.
“As different as Judaism and Christianity might appear to us today, they appeared similar to first-century gentiles; indeed, they were often indistinguishable. Gentile motivations for converting to either Judaism or Christianity would also have been similar. The same people tempted to convert to Judaism would have been tempted to convert to Christianity as well.” (Segal, Alan F. Paul the Convert. Yale University Press. New Haven and London. 1990, p. 210).
While Nephi’s conception of Judaism is 600 years prior to the situation described by Segal, there is no reason to presume that Nephi would have seen his belief in the Messiah as requiring any separation from his past. Nevertheless, he does note that there is a change, and a change that has implications for his ultimate Jewishness. In an earlier part of this discourse, Nephi notes: