Redaction: Moroni varies from his formula for liturgical presentation. He begins, as expected, with an introduction, but does not conclude with a recapitulation. Richard Lloyd Anderson suggests that the formal redaction of the Nephite sacrament prayers reflect the Messiah’s teachings:
The Nephite sacrament prayer incorporates the “words of institution” when Christ gave the sacrament in America. Background chapters are the Savior’s explanation of baptism in 3 Nephi 11, followed by his discourse on the sacrament in 3 Nephi 18, the climaxing event of his first appearance to them. Jesus clearly unfolded the meaning of the bread and wine that should be administered “unto all those who shall believe and be baptized in my name” (3 Ne. 18:5). New World disciples were to witness through the symbols of his body and blood that “ye do always remember me.” But their thoughts were to rise to plans for righteous acts, for the mutual covenant relationship was valid only “if ye shall keep my commandments”; only then would they “have my Spirit to be with you” (3 Ne. 18:11–14).
All these commitments combine in the Nephite sacrament covenant, the prayer consecrating the bread. Although Moroni gives it some centuries later, he leaves no doubt as to its source: “and they administered it according to the commandments of Christ” (Moro. 4:1). This probably means that the Savior gave the prayer. Each of its promises follow Jesus’s Nephite sacrament sermon. As Mormon finished his selection of Christ’s teachings, he mentioned the fuller record “of the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people” (3 Ne. 26:6–8). Indeed, his son Moroni shows a special interest in rounding out the record with additional sayings of the Savior (Morm. 9:22–25), so perhaps Moroni took the sacrament prayers from a fuller account of Christ’s teachings. This method parallels the manner in which Christ’s teachings were kept in the New Testament and earliest Christian literature. Core collections were later supplemented by additional sources and recollections. Here is another of the many stylistic and structural patterns where the Book of Mormon has the marks of an ancient history. As stated, each phrase of the Nephite sacrament prayer has an exact equivalent in Christ’s words of institution in 3 Nephi 18. And Moroni insists that “the manner,” or form, of the prayer is “true,” meaning specifically that it was authorized by Christ (Moro. 4:1).
Moroni mentions “their elders and priests.” Here, “elders” seems to mean the twelve, since he specifically equates the two in Moroni 3:1: “… the disciples, who were called the elders of the church.… ” It would be unlikely for Moroni to identify the twelve with the “elders” in one chapter and mean a different body in the very next chapter. Our modern office of “elder” is textually related to “elders” in the Bible (Acts 15:2–6) but also includes the generic title of respect, “elders of the people,” which does not connote specific ecclesiastical authority (Matt. 21:23).
Both the disciples/elders and priests could administer the sacrament. The omission of teachers here possibly suggests that they had the function implied by their titles, while the priests’ function was to administer the rites of the church.
The sacrament was instituted by Christ himself during his visit to the Nephites in Bountiful:
And this shall ye always observe to do, even as I have done, even as I have broken bread and blessed it and given it unto you.
And this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you. (3 Ne. 18:6–7)
In this example, eating bread was followed by drinking wine, an act that was given ritual significance. Similarly, Moroni’s sacrament prayers represent two separate ritual acts that are to be performed consecutively. The model for these sacrament prayers is the Savior’s original administration. However, Moroni is recording what the liturgical practice had become by his day, which differs slightly from the 3 Nephi record. The Savior instituted this remembrance in the context of publicly distributing food—a meal, in other words, not a ritual. Yahweh-Messiah first broke bread and gave it to the people; after they had eaten, he taught them its ritual significance. In the liturgical form, the prayer precedes the distribution of the bread.
In the Old World, this distinction between meal and eucharist is at times difficult to sort out. The earliest Christians celebrated a communal meal along with the symbolic meal of the sacrament. Scholars have had a difficult time extracting the symbolic meal from the full meal. Indeed, if the early Christians were attempting to follow the form of the meal in the upper room where Christ introduced the sacrament to his apostles, one might expect a bread-blessing at the beginning of the shared meal and a cup-blessing at its end. Regardless of the order, the combined ritual and communal meal were later shortened to the sacrament rite alone. Paul F. Bradshaw, professor of liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, suggests:
It would therefore not necessarily have appeared unusual if first-century Jewish-Christian communal meals had involved blessings being said over wine and bread at the same time, at the very beginning of the meal. And while we have no evidence for Christian meals where the cup blessing came at the end, we do have at least some evidence of a Christian practice where the cup blessing seems to have come at the beginning, along with the blessing over the bread, as we have already seen. And that pattern is very close to the one that we find in Justin Martyr in the second century (and also the later tradition), where bread and cup are brought together to the one presiding, who then gives thanks over them, although the meal has now apparently disappeared. It is true that this displays a bread-cup sequence rather than a cup-bread one, but that there might have been a difference in their order in different communities should not surprise us, especially as similar variations in the order of blessings and disputes between different schools as to which one was correct characterize a great deal of the later rabbinic literature. What both sequences have in common is that the two blessings/thanksgivings take place in close proximity to one another at the beginning of a meal, and this would have continued unchanged even when the meal was no longer included.
When Moroni records that “they administered it [the sacrament] according to the commandments of Christ,” he is referring to the Messiah’s commandment that the people perform this act in his memory (3 Ne. 18:6–7). Moroni affirms that “we know the manner to be true,” despite the variation from the 3 Nephi model. No doubt the tradition was strong that the Messiah had dictated these words. They certainly could have been. But in any case, Moroni believed that they had been handed down from Yahweh-Messiah through disciples/elders who had officiated in that ordinance ever since.