There are two types of headers that are original to the original or printer’s manuscripts. They were not separated from the rest of the text during dictation, so our present headers represent those that the compositor recognized.
The easy ones to see are the book headers. John Gilbert, the compositor, recognized these. The second type of header is a chapter header. Gilbert saw them more clearly when he was preparing the books of Mosiah and Alma. However, he missed them in the material from 1 Nephi through Words of Mormon. There are not many, but there are arguably two in Nephi’s writings. One appears at the end of the book header for 1 Nephi. It should probably be set as a header. The second is for 2 Nephi 6, where verse 1 is the chapter header introducing the insertion of Jacob’s sermon.
In this case, Jacob 2:1 should also have been set as a chapter header. This one is interesting because it is much more similar to the chapter header to 1 Nephi 1. Most chapter headers introduce inserted text from a different author. The chapter header for 1 Nephi 1 and this chapter header for Jacob 2 both introduce text by the main author. Nephi’s first chapter header functions more as a declaration of authorship, but this chapter header does indicate the insertion of material given at a different time but included in the text. What follows is the content of a sermon that Jacob gave. The basic context for the sermon was indicated in Jacob 1. The two critical themes will be multiple wives and being puffed up which is associated with the search for gold and silver.