A Bridge

Church Educational System
The two pages comprising The Words of Mormon are approximately five hundred years out of context. Note that the approximate date at the end of the book of Omni is 130 B.C. whereas the Words of Mormon are dated about 385 A.D. (See 4 Nephi 48 and Mormon 1:2; 6:5 for the major dates in the life of Mormon.) However, the approximate date of the beginning of the book of Mosiah is once again 130 B.C.

The Words of Mormon were apparently written near the end of Mormon’s life for the purpose of connecting two major records. It was made known to Mormon ‘by the workings of the Spirit of the Lord’ that the small plates of Nephi (which ended when Benjamin was a relatively young man) might be used to replace his abridgment of the book of Lehi [the first book on the large plates of Nephi] (which ended when Benjamin was an old man about ready to die).

So that a gap would not occur in the history of the Nephites, Mormon included the major events of the lifetime of King Benjamin in The Words of Mormon, thus connecting the account on the small plates of Nephi with Mormon’s abridgment of the book of Mosiah.

(Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, pp. 171)

Book of Mormon Student Manual (1996 Edition)

References