In the previous verse Nephi asserted that Jesus was baptised to "fulfil all righteousness." In this verse he turns that assertion into a rhetorical question, and asks of his audience the reason why this should be so. While rhetorical questions are by no means limited to oral discourse, the function of such a question is to engage an audience, and the technique has greater impact on a present audience than one reached through the written word. It is another of the clues that Nephi is recording an oral discourse rather than writing new information for the plates as he did for his exposition on Isaiah.