“And There Began to Be Contentions”

Brant Gardner

Nephi’s preaching has a marked effect, but “contentions” arise among the people. These divisions were presumably between church-men and non-church-men (perhaps still king-men), since these have been the lines of division in all of Nephite history to this point. In this case, however, the non-church-men are the majority and, therefore, able to enforce their views. Violence explodes into some form of civil war.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 5

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