By their receiving the Book of Mormon through the Gentiles, the seed of Nephi (today’s Lamanites) are to learn that they are descendants of the Jews. Nephi later qualifies the Jew as “them from whence I came” (2 Nephi 33:8). Nephi was a blood descendant of Manasseh (Alma 10:3), but had lived among the Jews therefore he is a cultural Jew. The Latter-day Saints who bring the Book of Mormon to the Lamanites are also cultural Gentiles. Although the Church members “are lawful heirs, according to the flesh, and have been hid from the world [scattered among the Gentiles] with Christ in God” (D&C 86:9), they are Israel who are “identified with the Gentiles” (109:60).
The Book of Mormon will be the means of teaching the Lamanites the gospel and restoring them to the knowledge of their fathers and of Jesus Christ (v. 5). The gospel will give spiritual and social blessings to them that will culminate in their becoming “a pure and delightsome people.” The original edition of the Book of Mormon wording was “a white and delightsome people.” Joseph Smith changed the word “white” to “pure” in the 1840 third edition of the Book of Mormon, probably because it gave a much broader description of the blessings that would be poured out. Subsequent editions of the Book of Mormon, printed after the Prophet’s death, reverted back to the original word “white” for an unknown reason. The 1980 editions changed the word again to “pure” with the approval of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve.