In Mosiah 12:1, Abinadi enters among the people of king Noah "in disguise," and then he says to them, "Thus has the Lord commanded me, saying--Abinadi, go and prophesy unto this my people, for they have hardened their hearts against my words." To the reader this seems absurd. Why would Abinadi appear in disguise and then identify himself? According to Hugh Nibley, you see the same thing in the Old Testament and in the New Testament when Jesus went in disguise to the Passover so they didn't know him. In John 11:54 the Lord is disguised, and the prophets went about in disguise. Saul was in disguise when he visited the Witch of Endor, etc. Disguising is very common; Isaiah is an example. They go and hide themselves. Elijah hid and was fed by ravens. They hide and disguise themselves and circulate among the people. They are also hid by the people in their houses. That's the normal career with the prophets. . . . To get into the town Abinadi was disguised. But when he was in there, he cast off his disguise and preached to them as a prophet.. It hit them like a bolt of lightning and there was more trouble. . . . As it says here: "and it came to pass that after the space of two years that Abinadi came among them in disguise, that they knew him not, and began to prophesy among them." [Hugh W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 2, p. 59]