A Study Guide Companion for The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
ENOS - JAROM -
OMNI
Enos
Jacob trusted his son with the sacred spiritual records. Before Jacob died, he gave Enos the Small Plates, telling him what Nephi had commanded should be written on them. Enos promised his father he would obey those commands.
Nephi was Enos’s uncle, but he was many years older than Enos’s father, Jacob. We can safely infer that Nephi and Jacob were very close as brothers. Review 1:1 & 2 of 1 Nephi and compare the way Nephi began the Small Plates with how Enos began his portion of the Small Plates.
Although Enos did not have a complete testimony as a young man, he was honorable and desired to believe. Throughout his early life, his father Jacob taught him about God. These teachings helped Enos become partially converted; he had faith in Jesus Christ, who would come into the world hundreds of years in the future. Some of this faith had been borrowed from his father, but he truly yearned to experience the blessings of the Spirit for himself.
His father no doubt told him that the Holy Spirit fell on all Nephites who listened to Sherem’s last confession (Jacob 7:21). Enos knew, through Jacob’s teachings, the doctrine of Jesus Christ and of Eternal Life and of the joy felt when this knowledge burns in one’s heart.
Enos reached a desperate time in his life when he longed with all his heart to know God for himself. He prayed to the Lord to find out the truth…and he was greatly blessed.
Preceding his great sacred experience, Enos went by himself into the forest. Although the Nephites raised herds of cattle, they also hunted for meat. As Enos went into the forest to hunt, the teachings of his father “sunk deep into his heart.” Whether he went for the purpose of the hunt or the purpose of being alone, we are not sure. But as we read about his experience, we see the privacy of the forest was necessary.
“Sunk deep into my heart” is a significant metaphor for Enos’s sense of intense remembering, because when our hearts are open to the Holy Ghost, He can cause us to remember—or “bring all (of Christ’s words) to our remembrance (John 14:26).”
Enos urgently longed for the same spiritual enlightenment that filled his father’s soul.
“And my soul hungered”
In his yearning and determination to receive his own testimony, he fervently prayed; he prayed all day; he prayed into the night; he prayed out loud.
Jesus Christ’s wicked critics cited Him for blasphemy when He forgave sins, because “only God can forgive sins” (Mark 2:7). As with the devil’s other deceptive “half-truths,” the Satan-followers were half right. Only God can forgive sins. They were also half wrong. Jesus is the Lord and God of our world and countless other worlds. He is the One who atoned for all mankind’s sins and thus is our Advocate to Heavenly Father; He has every right and all Power to forgive. His Voice came strongly into Enos’s mind telling him that his sins were forgiven. Enos absolutely believed Him, because he knew that God could not lie. But Enos also wanted to know how it was done.
When wonderful things happen to righteous people, the natural tendency is for them to share their happiness. Few mortals experience such a marvelous encounter as did Enos and with thanksgiving, he wanted his fellow-Nephites to also receive the great blessings of Eternal Life and joy in the Savior.
Although the Lord nourished the Nephites with scriptures and prophets, Enos was concerned about the way they were living. They had the tragic inclination whenever they prospered to fall into iniquity. Although the Lord loved Enos and honored his faith and caring, He let Enos know that Nephites must deserve blessings through righteous living in order to continue to have them.
Enos determined to inspire his Nephite brethren to be diligent in keeping the commandments; from that night he freely testified of his own experiences and prophesied of future events. He next prayed for his Lamanite relatives.
The Lord gave Enos the assurance that the records would come forth and that someday the Lamanites would receive them for the good of their souls. This promise brought “rest” to Enos’s soul.
The Lord told Enos that his “fathers”—Jacob—as well as Lehi, who was Enos’s grandfather—and likely his uncle Nephi, the prophet who began the Plates, had also prayed in faith for the same blessing for the future of the sacred Plates. Because righteous people prayed with great faith, God promised the records would be preserved and at last be brought forth.
Following Enos’s marvelous experiences in the forest, he spent the remainder of his life trying to bring others to Christ, testifying of his manifestations and prophesying of the events for which the world was created.
A hundred seventy-nine years had passed since Lehi and his family had left Jerusalem. Enos, Lehi’s grandson and now a prophet of many years, bore his testimony on the Small Plates to end his record. He said that the Power of God (undoubtedly through the Holy Spirit) compelled him to preach and prophesy of Christ. He wrote positively about the joy he received knowing the truth of Christ.
Enos knew that God Himself prepared a place for the righteous in His holy Kingdom. As Enos’s life drew to its conclusion, he looked forward to seeing the face of the Lord, and to being with his Lord and our Lord, to become immortal, and being able to report with satisfaction that he had kept the commandments. He would experience “rest,” or peace of spirit, that comes to the righteous.
JAROM
Jarom added a reason for the recordings on the Small Plates. He knew that previous prophets explained the Plan of Salvation in detail on the Plates and that these thorough explanations were available for all readers. He also knew the records were for the future benefit of the Lamanites. However, he supplied an allied reason that his father Enos had told him—genealogy. Even though a complete genealogical history was not required on the Plates, generation connections have always been important in the Lord’s Plan.
Genealogy was not only necessary for the Nephites’ benefit. It was particularly important for the Nephites to always remember the blood relationship between themselves and the Lamanites. Besides these nations, both being branches of the House of Israel, were both included in the promises made to their common ancestors, Lehi and Sariah. With this unbreakable link, the Nephites were responsible to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with their Lamanite cousins. Jarom reminded readers that this was an important intent of the Plates.
Jarom was a righteous man. He was given prophecies and he had revelations, but because he was cognizant of the limited space on the Plates, he acknowledged that previous prophets’ writings were complete, particularly their explanations of the Plan of Salvation; he did not think he should use up space on the Small Plates to feature his own prophesies and revelations.
Jarom mentioned two factions within the Nephite society —those that were blind, deaf, and stiff-necked toward the Spirit of the Lord (He recognized that it was expedient to do much [work] among this group.)— and those who were righteous and accepted the Holy Spirit.
Although many Nephites harbored stiff-necked attitudes, the Lord blessed them with righteous kings and religious leaders. These caring shepherds taught the people faith, insisting they keep commandments of God, so their cities and lands received God’s protection against the frequent onslaughts from the Lamanites.
Jarom was a righteous man. He was given prophecies and he had revelations, but because he was cognizant of the limited space on the Plates, he acknowledged that previous prophets’ writings were complete, particularly their explanations of the Plan of Salvation; he did not think he should use up space on the Small Plates to feature his own prophesies and revelations.
Jarom mentioned two factions within the Nephite society —those that were blind, deaf, and stiff-necked toward the Spirit of the Lord (He recognized that it was expedient to do much [work] among this group.)— and those who were righteous and accepted the Holy Spirit.
Although many Nephites harbored stiff-necked attitudes, the Lord blessed them with righteous kings and religious leaders. These caring shepherds taught the people faith, insisting they keep commandments of God, so their cities and lands received God’s protection against the frequent onslaughts from the Lamanites.
The Lord kept His promise to preserve them on the Promised Land as long as they kept His commandments even though most Nephites kept them more from fear of consequences than for love of God and righteous living. The religious leaders constantly had to remind the people that they would be destroyed if they did not obey the commandments.
The Lord promised to nurture the people—and He did. He gave them Holy Scriptures; He gave them prophets, priests, and teachers. These Godly servants worked hard, teaching that the Law of Moses was given with the intent of looking forward to Christ, the Messiah.
About thirty-eight years after his initial writings, Jarom again wrote on the records, this time concluding, again saying he would not take up much space, but referring any readers who wanted to know about the wars and history to go to the Large Plates, which the kings kept.
Keeping the genealogical chain linked, Jarom turned the Small Plates over to his son, Omni.
OMNI
The Book of Omni is a thirty-verse book containing recordings of four generations of writers—including five writers—as the Plates passed from father to son or brother to brother. Omni’s father Jarom suggested readers go to the Large Plates (kept by the kings) to seek more information if they wished, indicating space was running out on the Small Plates.
The Small Plates were very special as a completed set; no mention is made of making more of them.
Amaron, Omni’s son, called the Small Plates “the book of my father” (verse 4). It was forty years before Amaron’s entry that Omni last reckoned and recorded time on the Plates.
After Amaron wrote this, he relinquished the Plates to his brother, Chemish, not giving any more details concerning who in his own family were destroyed or who were preserved.
Abinadom, Chemish’s son, witnessed and experienced much bloodshed during his lifetime as the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites raged.
Abinadom understood that the Small Plates were intended to tell of revelations and prophecies. He was familiar with the Large Plates that were being kept by the kings. He knew they contained the history of the people. Reading the Small Plates, he could not find any missing prophecies or revelations.
Abinadom did not mention that the more righteous Nephites fled out of the land of Nephi into the wilderness and later joined with another group in the land of Zarahemla. Perhaps, because all of these facts were readily available on the Large Plates, Abinadom did not think it necessary or appropriate to summarize them also on the Small Plates.
Fortunately, for our purposes, Amaleki, the son of Abinadom, made the decision to at least duplicate enough of the information that we know some details of the righteous Nephites ending up in a new place with new people.
Creating a transitional bridge regarding time and place, Amaleki introduced us to a new phase in Nephite history.