Redaction: At this point, Moroni shifts from narrative to admonition to his future readers. “Whoso receiveth” is a generic statement directed broadly at any future readers. They should receive and appreciate this text. He promises that those who receive the Book of Mormon in faith will have even greater things revealed. In other words, the Book of Mormon is a beginning, not an end. It does not contain all of God’s wonders. More is available—more than Moroni can explain.
Text: This verse acknowledges errors in the book. Those who believe in spite of those errors will be blessed. In verse 17 Moroni adds that they are the “faults of men.” He then launches on a meandering discussion that describes what Mormon asked him to do and explains how he did it.
First, Mormon asked Moroni to preserve the record and also to chronicle events of his own day, just as Ammaron had charged Mormon with the same assignment (Morm. 1:4). Of course, the usual audience of Nephites no longer exists, but I conjecture that the hereditary scribal tradition was so strong and important that Mormon charges Moroni with the task anyway. Moroni fulfills that assignment by completing Mormon’s record with a summary of the Nephite collapse and Mormon’s death, and also by keeping the sacred records. Moroni writes in his father’s book but gives his own identifying colophon in Mormon 8:13–14.
I deduce that Mormon also assigned Moroni the task of adding his own testimony of the work, since that message constitutes most of what Moroni inscribed in his father’s book. (See commentary accompanying verse 14 for Moroni’s additional work.)
In following Mormon’s assignment, Moroni does so in his own way. His style differs from Mormon’s. Gary Lane Hatch, associate professor of English at Brigham Young University, describes some of the differences: “Instead of the concise, objective style of the sober and observant Mormon, Moroni gives us glimpses into his own fears, sorrows, and misgivings.… In his writing, Moroni also lacks the confident, concise, and detached style of Mormon.”
A discernible difference is their level of preparatory organization. Mormon was working from an outline, notes, and or rough draft. (See Mosiah, Part 1: Context, Chapter 2, “Mormon’s Structural Editing: Chapters and Books.”) While he inserted asides and explanations, he still worked from a highly organized structure. Moroni, in contrast, is more discursive. He begins by acknowledging human mistakes in the record (v. 12), discusses the person who will bring the record to light (v. 16), then returns to the mistakes of men (v. 17). He bears testimony (vv. 22–41), but it is long and rambling in contrast to Mormon’s brilliantly concise admonition to future readers (Morm. 7: 1–10). Moroni faithfully accepted the assignment to write but did so without a predetermined plan. Moroni probably inscribed his message directly on the plates and, I conjecture, in a single sitting. Moroni is no less an important prophet or inspired man than Mormon. He simply had a different style.