Redaction: Once again we have the future tense. Mormon is telling us what he will do, and that is "put them with the remainder of my record." We now have sufficient pieces of this puzzle to suggest a solution to the textual process whereby we received both the small plate material and this book which is called Words of Mormon.
- Mormon found the small plates when he was looking for more source material for his abridgement. This source material was termed the plates of Nephi, but consisted of a large number of sets of plates, individually designated by the political or religious leader that was central to them.
- Mormon reads though the plates, but does not enter them into his record at this time! Not only does he make this note near the time he gives the plates to Moroni, but he indicates that he includes them "for a wise purpose" (verse 7). The most logical reading of his writing is that the original redaction flowed continuously from Benjamin to Mosiah. When Mormon was near finishing, the Lord reminded him of this set of small plates.
- Mormon inserted the small plates into their chronological order, and then added this chapter (Words of Mormon) as the ligature to tie the inserted plates to the following abridgment.
- The apparent chronological problem comes from the presumption that he added the small plates into his record precisely when he found them. Since his original charge was to write the abridgment, he would have taken that as the foremost task, and was "free" to include this text only when he could see that the main task had been, or soon would be, completed.
