We saw in the discussion of Mosiah 14:10/Isaiah 53:10 that Isaiah’s use of “generation” can be seen in several ways. It may look back to ancestors, it may be a declaration about his contemporaries, or it may point to his descendants. Despite this range of possibilities, however, Abinadi clearly reads this instance of “generation” as descendants. He has powerful reasons for wanting to do so. By declaring that this “generation” parallels the Messiah’s seeing his seed, he can focus his discourse on that seed.
Abinadi may obliquely relate sowing the seed to publishing peace. He ends this part of the discourse with a return to the original question he was asked. By the time he returns, “seed” and “publishing peace” have the same meaning. Perhaps in Abinadi’s language, some underlying word play relates sowing to publishing. Publishing might be seen as similar to planting seeds by broadcasting them on the ground, though this is not the method for planting the Mesoamerican staples of corn and beans.