Moroni uses the garments’ tearing to make another symbolic point. They are a remnant people, “ripped” away from the house of Israel. He makes particular mention of Joseph and the torn garment with which his brothers convinced Jacob that his favorite son was dead. Intriguingly, he alludes to a legend that a piece of that ripped coat of many colors never decayed. Mormon does not explain this legend, and it does not appear in any known scripture, but it was clearly familiar to Moroni and the Nephites.
Moroni uses this legend and its relationship to a torn garment to make a point with his new covenant makers. Should they transgress, they might be “cast into prison,” a reference to Joseph’s captivity in Egypt. However, Moroni also uses this example to encourage them. They should be righteous (as Joseph was righteous, by implication) and they will therefore be “preserved” just as Joseph’s cloak has been preserved.
Hugh Nibley reported that this legend appears in an Arabic legend recorded by Tha’labi in the eleventh century, but he apparently mistranslated the key word. Brian M. Hauglid, a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, analyzed the Tha’labi passage and concluded that the word Nibley translated as decay actually refers to the odor (of Paradise) that clung to the garment. In the Arabic legend, the garment was in fact endowed with a miraculous quality (its touch can heal), but it was healing, not preservation that was the miracle. Of course, it had to be preserved to perform the miraculous healings, but Tha’labi and other Arabic sources appear to concentrate on healing rather preservation, while Jacob’s prophecy depends on the garment’s preservation, not its healing power. While both stories reflect the garment’s importance, they represent different traditions.