The abridged record was named after the last prophet, Ether, who wrote upon the plates the account of the demise of his people (Ether 12–15). He filled the same role with the Jaredites as Mormon did with the Nephites (Mormon 1–7). Whether Moroni called the record “book of Ether” (Ether 1:2), or it was so named on the twenty-four plates is not clear. However, the abridgment made by Moroni is a second witness to the Book of Mormon being “a record of a fallen people” (D&C 20:9). Regarding Moroni’s abridgment, Dr. Sidney B. Sperry has written:
From Ether 1:2 one naturally assumes that Mormon made his abridgment directly from the plates themselves. If he did so, we are driven to the conclusion that it was necessary for him to find his way to the Hill Cumorah, where his father had hidden them. Inasmuch as the language of the plates was that of the Jaredite people, it would have been incumbent upon Moroni to translate them by means of the holy “interpreters” or the Urim and Thummim before he could abridge them. This would have been a tremendous task, because Moroni says (Ether 15:33) that he had not written the hundredth part of the record, and as it is we have fifteen chapters or about thirty-one and one-half printed pages in our current edition. It seems much more reasonable—for the writer at least—to believe that Moroni abridged the translation of the book of Ether which had been made many hundred years before by King Mosiah (Mosiah 28:1–20). This translation would also have been available to Moroni in the hill.
The account of the creation of the world, and of Adam down to the great tower (Ether 1:3), will someday come forth as another witness to Genesis 1:1–11:9. These twenty-four plates were preserved among the other Nephite records (see Mormon 1:1–6). The coming forth of the full record will further witness that Adam kept a record from the beginning (see Moses 6:5–9), and that Moses restored that record after it had apparently been desecrated by man (see Moses 1:40–41). The plates of brass that Nephi obtained from Laban will be a second witness to the record of Adam (Ether 1:4; see also 1 Nephi 5:10–12). It is not clear whether Moroni is referring to Joseph Smith or to a future servant of God who will find the plates. Nor is it clear whether Moroni is referring to the gold plates or the plates of brass that will give us the full account (Ether 1:4). Nevertheless, Moroni gives us part of the account.