The Title Page of the Book of Mormon describes the book as an “abridgment” of the records of two groups of people, the Nephites and the Lamanites, as well as an “abridgment” of the records of an earlier civilization called the Jaredites. Multiple times in the book, we are reminded how much these records had to be abridged. For example, at one point Mormon writes:
A hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, yea, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites, and their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, and their preaching, and their prophecies, and their shipping and their building of ships, and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, and their righteousness, and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plundering, and all manner of abominations and whoredoms, cannot be contained in this work.
Helaman 3:14; see also Jacob 3:13, Words of Mormon 1:5-6, 3 Nephi 5:8, 3 Nephi 26:6, Ether 15:33
Mormon clearly wanted to tell us more but knew that he could not. He carefully followed the whisperings of the Spirit of the Lord as he edited (Words of Mormon 1:7), including cutting short some stories when directed. (See 3 Nephi 26:6-11.)
I have previously looked at the impact of this editing on the book of Alma, showing with a diagram how Mormon focuses on only a few significant events during the 40-year period covered by that book. Today, I looked more broadly at Mormon’s editorial choices across the 1,000+ year period covered by the entire Book of Mormon. Here’s a diagram showing how many words are dedicated to each of the 103 decades in the book. I used the estimated years from the chapter headings to create this diagram. Where a range of years is given, if it crossed over multiple decades, I divided the words in that chapter evenly across those decades. The book of Ether has no estimated dates, so I simply marked it as “unknown.”
Excluding the Jaredite record, the Book of Mormon covers a period of about 1,000 years, but there are basically three islands of content within those 1,000 years:
- The migration of Lehi’s family and Nephi’s words after arriving in the promised land (600-545 BC)
- The ministries of Abinadi, Benjamin, Alma, Nephi, and Samuel, as well as the mission to the Lamanites and the great war, leading to the ministry of Jesus Christ (148 BC – 35 AD)
- The final words of Mormon and Moroni (321-421 AD)
It’s worth noting that the 116 pages which Joseph Smith called “the Book of Lehi” may have contained more information about the decades between the death of Nephi and the preaching of Abinadi. (See Words of Mormon 1:3.) One story, in particular, that appears to have been lost is the account of Amulek’s ancestor Aminadi interpreting words written on the wall of the temple by the finger of God. (See Alma 10:2.)
But as Mormon tells us, there were many other stories which might have been interesting and meaningful to us, but which were not central to the purpose of the book: bringing us closer to Jesus Christ. As Ezra Taft Benson observed, “Mormon wrote near the end of the Nephite civilization. Under the inspiration of God, who sees all things from the beginning, he abridged centuries of records, choosing the stories, speeches, and events that would be most helpful to us” (“The Book of Mormon—Keystone of Our Religion,” General Conference, October 1986).
In that light, it’s not hard to understand why Mormon focused on the decades immediately preceding the ministry of Jesus Christ on the American continent, since the preparation the Nephites and Lamanites made for that event parallels the preparation we are now making for the Savior’s Second Coming.
Today, I will trust Mormon’s editorial choices. I will remember that he was guided by the Spirit of the Lord to include the content which is most relevant to us.