According to Brant Gardner, one of Benjamin's first statements to his people is that: "I have not commanded you to come up hither that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I of myself am more than a mortal man. But I am like as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind . . ." (Mosiah 2:10-11). In the context of a people who would have believed in a king who was the embodiment of a god, as was common in Mesoamerican religions, this opening contrast to their past experience is remarkably appropriate.
Benjamin's next set of remarks also fits this view of a people in conflict over the nature of religion and kings when he begins his catalog of the kind of king he has not been. (see Mosiah 2:12-13) Why does Benjamin emphasize the negative side kingship when his own kingship has been full of positive things he has done? The obvious answer is that he was trying to differentiate himself from the other kings they might have known, either in their own past, or in the cultures with which they had come into contact with in Mesoamerica. [Brant Gardner, "A Social History of the Early Nephites," delivered at the FAIR Conference, August 17, 2001, pp. 9-10]