At this point, Mormon has set the scene and now begins the real story: Abinadi’s two-part mission and martyrdom. The Book of Mormon supplies virtually no information about Abinadi’s pre-mission life, but John Tvedtnes proposes an interesting hypothesis:
When Noah replaced his father Zeniff as king of the Nephites living in the land of Nephi, “he put down all the priests that had been consecrated by his father, and consecrated new ones in their stead, such as were lifted up in the pride of their hearts” (Mosiah 11:5).…
We know that Abinadi “spake with power and authority from God” (Mosiah 13:6). Amid the political and religious corruption in the land of Nephi, how did he receive this divine authority? It is possible that he was one of the deposed priests who had served under the righteous king Zeniff, but, alas, the record is silent on this matter.
Rodney Turner, professor of religion at Brigham Young University, suggests that Abinadi’s mission has parallels to that of John the Baptist in the New Testament: “Abinadi is the John the Baptist of the Book of Mormon. Like John, he was a lone prophet who briefly ministered to a people committed to the law of Moses who knew little of the Messiah to come and nothing of his actual divinity. Like John, Abinadi preached repentance, warned of the impending judgments of God, and testified of the Messiah to come. Both prophets were opposed by the religious leaders of their day; both were victims of priestcraft—the ultimate hypocrisy. Both denounced the immoral conduct of their respective kings and died violent deaths at their hands.”
Culture: Abinadi is clearly a member of the Noahite society, “a man among them.” He may have come from Zarahemla with Zeniff. We probably all have a clear image of him as elderly, thanks to the popular Arnold Friberg painting, but the text itself provides no indication of his age. He certainly is not one of those who has abandoned Yahweh and adopted the new idolatry. He preaches against “abominations, wickedness, and whoredoms,” all of which resulted from the conjectured adoption of the indigenous culture/religion. Abinadi comes to call them back to the worship of the true God.