Nephi’s statement speaks about the baptism of Christ as if it had already occurred. This kind of grammatical construction is not unusual. Prophets in the Old Testament often used past tense, present perfect tense, or past perfect tense when they prophesied about future events. This phenomenon is referred to as the “prophetic perfect.” For instance, in Isaiah 53, the prophet uses the prophetic perfect as he describes the future sufferings of the Savior, “He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him.” In the Book of Mormon, many prophets, including Lehi, Nephi, Abinadi, and King Benjamin, use the prophetic perfect when they prophesy. (See Echoes, 164–166).