Redaction: Mormon's information becomes a little more specific about the plates, and we must read carefully here. In the first sentence, Mormon says that he will speak about that which he has written. This very clearly places this paragraph after something that Mormon has written, but what?
The only very clear reference in this verse is to the small plate materials. Mormon says that after he had written his abridgement of the plates of Nephi to the reign of Benjamin, he went searching his source materials (all of the plates that had been delivered into his hands. This verse tells us several important pieces of information.
- Mormon did not work with a single set of records at a time that were completely in order. Even if there were only a single set of plates per ruler, they were not compiled into a physical set. We know this because he had to look through his records. If he were only looking for the very next record in the set, he would have found it in place and used it. It is the very fact of searching that tells us something of the state of the records from which the abridgement was made. There were multiple sets of records, and they were presented in a random order, from which Mormon had to extract some sense when he compiled his work.
- While individual books would be named for specific people, as is retained in the translation of Mormon's account, there was a collective name for the entire set of records, which was the plates of Nephi. the use of this consistent designation for what was demonstrably multiple sets of records indicates that regardless of the specific content of any single set, it was yet entitled the "plates of Nephi"(see below for an more detailed analysis).
- The time when Mormon found the small plates was when he was apparently looking for the next set of records to abridge.
- Mormon did not know about these small plates before he found them. He was not looking for them, and their very existence appears to have been a surprise to him. While we cannot be certain that he read them through when he found them, that is the best hypothesis. Once Mormon had found the set of plates that he did not expect, he would have had to read some to know whether they were of any importance. Finding right at the beginning that they were actually in the hand of the original Nephi would have been too great a temptation for any man with a historical interest (and the job of abridging the plates surely gave Mormon such an interest if it were not natural to him). While Mormon would have had that same opportunity with the original large plates, that was an expected tradition. These were a surprise, and the way in which they retold a story Mormon had already abridged would be of as much interest to Mormon as reading Mormon's account of that time period would be to us today (and even more so the original of any of the plates from which Mormon abridged his information).
- Mormon labels this a "small account." Jacob specifically calls them "small plates" (Jacob 1:1), as does Jarom (Jarom 1:2,14). These references are undoubtedly behind the LDS tradition of referring to these holograph plates as the "small plates of Nephi." We should understand, however, how they are "small."
- Much earlier, we discussed the creation of the plates, and suggested that the physical size and shape of each plate was related to the model of the brass plates. Without a standard size model, Nephi either made one up, or followed the only pattern of scripture he had. With the importance of the brass plates to Nephi, not only scripturally, but personally (remembering the very personal events that brought the plates out of Jerusalem) it makes sense that they were formed after the pattern of the brass plates (and indeed that both material and script were suggested by the plates). From the visual model of the brass plates Nephi created two sets of plates, one which becomes labeled "small" in our tradition, and the other "large," though only by reference to the "small" as they are never called that in the plates themselves. What the "small" plates are probably not - is smaller in single sheet size. Nephi would not have had any conception of a "pocket book" an alternate form factor that would be smaller in size. Indeed, while forging the original plates, it makes much more sense to make them all the same size, and simply use some in one record and some in another. Thus we should not suppose that the individual sheets of the 'small' plates would be any different size that the rest of the plates. The 'small' size, therefore is that the quantity of plates relegated to this set is significantly fewer than those with which Mormon is familiar.
- We may also now infer something about the plates that Mormon used. Mormon had to physically abridge his sources onto a new set of plates. The modern descriptions of the plates have them held together with rings, but do not have a single section significantly different in shape. Since these holographic plates were included in the abridged set, we must assume that Mormon's plates were of the same basic size and shape as these original plates from Nephi. Therefore, the physical size that Nephi created became the de facto size for metal plate records throughout Nephite history. When Mormon finds these small plates and physically adds them to the plates he wrote on, they fit together just as sheets of store bought paper would today. While it does not surprise us that paper from one store should be the same as paper from another (indeed it is surprising when it is not) we ought to be surprised that an ancient form factor existed for the manual creation of plate records. Of course the simple explanation is that the records that Nephi created became the model for all such records that followed. The sacred nature of the records would encourage their following the same forms as the previous records. We should also understand that since Mormon makes the plates with his own hands (3 Nephi 5:11) that the plates need not have a fixed form prior to beginning to write on them. That is, he could have combined the sheets into their final form at any point (and indeed Moroni may have created the final arrangement of the physical order of the plates).
- This is perhaps obvious, but it shouldn't be; Mormon could read what Nephi wrote. Mormon knows enough to be able to indicate that whatever was one "Egyptian" is now "reformed Egyptian." That distinction alone tells us that Mormon could see some difference between the old records and the language or script that he was using. That we have this record with no more introduction that we have indicates that Mormon could read it fairly easily, and that he presumed that anyone able to read his record could read that of Nephi also.
Textual, defining the "plates of Nephi:" We are formally introduced to the plates of Nephi by Nephi himself:
1 Ne. 9:2
"2 And now, as I have spoken concerning these plates, behold they are not the plates upon which I make a full account of the history of my people; for the plates upon which I make a full account of my people I have given the name of Nephi; wherefore, they are called the plates of Nephi, after mine own name; and these plates also are called the plates of Nephi."
Unfortunately, Nephi happens to call two different records by the same name. This may have been only logical to him as he wrote both, and intended to keep their transmission lines separate, but it can make it more difficult for the modern reader to understand the references to the "plates of Nephi" when they are not clearly separated. Modern tradition labels "large plates of Nephi" those that Nephi intended for the historical/political record, and the "small plates of Nephi" the very specific record that was given to Jacob and transmitted through Jacob's descendants until it was discontinued after Amaleki at the time of King Benjamin.
We must remember, however, that this is an external designation for the plates, and when they refer to themselves they make no distinction between the large and small plates as we do. We should therefore examine a little more closely those internal reference to understand both to what they are referring, and the relationships between the various source materials.
