These two verses enlarge upon verse 17: “having first obtained mine errand from the Lord.” That statement describes Jacob’s authority for preaching the sermon, but Jacob here expands it to make a general description of the authority that he and Joseph attempted to exercise. Nephi had consecrated both men as priests and teachers, and both took their responsibilities seriously. Jacob copied his sermon into the record as evidence that he fulfilled his responsibility.
Culture: We have no definition of the social roles of priest and teachers, but we might assume that priest was a position, while teacher was a function. That is, a priest was particularly consecrated to perform ritual actions, but anyone might be a teacher. Perhaps the priests also taught as part of their responsibilities, rather than “teacher” being a separate office. Nephi is not called either a priest or a teacher, but his more important title of “king” would naturally have included the functions of teaching, preaching (2 Ne. 31–32), and administering. The existence of two priests and teachers again suggests a reasonably Nephite large population. Had there been only a handful of people, one teacher would have been sufficient.
While “priests” and “teachers” both are the names of offices in the modern Aaronic Priesthood, it would be a mistake to read these modern terms into Nephite society. The Book of Mormon does not deal with priesthood organization at this point. The absence of emphasis and textual definition of priesthood suggests that it was well understood and accepted. Only conflict over the nature of their priesthood or authority would have occasioned sermons on the topic. Rather than sermons on priesthood, at this early date the topic is wealth and polygyny. Those are the serious conflicts in the society. Our modern concerns about the nature of authority were not shared by the Nephites. They simply assumed that they had sufficient authority and there was no internal conflict that required its justification.
Text: This is the end of a chapter in the 1830 edition.