In Mosiah 13:11 we find Abinadi saying, "And now I read unto you." Now here in Mosiah 14:1 he says, "Yea, even doth not Isaiah say," and then follows a comparable version of Isaiah 53. Ann Madsen notes that the brass plates version of Isaiah predates the earliest extant version of Isaiah, the Dead Sea Scrolls document called the Great Isaiah Scroll, by about 450 years and the Masoretic Text by about 1,500 years. This latter text is what we call the Hebrew Bible, from whence came the KJV Old Testament. So the writings of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon become the earliest text of Isaiah available to us. [Ann Madsen, "'What Meaneth the Words That Are Written?': Abinadi Interprets Isaiah," in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, vol. 10, Num. 1, 2001, n. 2, p. 78] [See the commentary on 1 Nephi 5:11; 19:23]
Mosiah 14:2 As a tender plant ([Illustration]): Tender plant at Wadi Qelt, the Judean desert. Photograph by Tana and Mac Graham. [Donald W. Parry, Visualizing Isaiah, p. 89]