We begin with the book of Enos. Enos is a Hebrew name meaning mortal man, and he is named after the son of Seth, so the original Enos was the grandson of Adam. Undoubtedly the Nephites had more information about the original Enos than we do, but we have a little information in Doctrine and Covenants 107:44 and 53, as well as Moses 6. Enos was a High Priest, he prophesied, and was one of the few righteous who lived in the land. The parallels with the Book of Mormon Enos are striking. The original Enos was the grandson of Adam, while the Book of Mormon Enos was the grandson of Lehi, who was effectively an Adam to the Nephite-Lamanite peoples. The majority of people in the days of the original Enos were wicked, and remember the Lamanites greatly outnumbered the Nephites, while many of the Nephites were even beginning to go down a wrong path. Enos, grandson of Adam, lived in a land of promise with the people of God, a strikingly similar picture to Enos who lived among the Nephites. Most important of all, they both prophesied among their people. So we see that the name Enos was appropriate for the son of Jacob.

Enos uses very descriptive language, so it's unfortunate that we don't have the time to read the entire narrative in his own words. He starts off by mentioning his father, saying that his father taught him "in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (verse 1). In verse 2 he gives us the abstract of what's to follow: "And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins."

The situation was a hunting expedition in the forests. As Enos mentioned earlier, his father had taught him about the Lord, and in verse 3 Enos says that those words "sunk deep into [his] heart." Verse 4: "And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens." Let this be an example to us: Enos was a persistent man. He was going to be reconciled with the Lord, whatever it took.

Enos got his answer, as we read beginning with verse 5: "And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away." Then Enos wants details, and the Lord explains how it works: "Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore go to, thy faith hath made the whole" (verse 8).

So Enos got his remission of sins, what now? Well, he prays for his people. In his own words: "I did pour out my whole soul unto God for them" (verse 9). Check out how he gets his answers, in verse 10: "the voice of the Lord came into my mind again." If the voice of the Lord spoke to him in his mind, his mind had to be in tune to that. No wonder he had to struggle so much in his prayers for himself and his brethren. It's the same thing as with Romans 8:16: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Well, what was Enos' answer? Verse 10 again: "I will visit thy brethren according to their diligence in keeping my commandments." Enos got the same promise as Nephi, that the people would be blessed for their obedience and cursed for disobedience.

Now Enos writes, in verse 11, "And after I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord; and I prayed unto him with many long strugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites." What did he pray for with regard to the Lamanites? Well, the Nephites would only be preserved as long as they were righteous. So Enos prays that if the Nephites end up destroyed, their records would be preserved so that the Lamanites could one day have access to the gospel. Verse 16: "And I had faith, and I did cry unto God that he would preserve the records; and he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time."

Enos, having had these experiences, went out preaching and prophesying among the people. He would be declaring the gospel for the rest of his days. The Nephites were still trying to convert the Lamanites, but it still wasn't the right time yet. We read about this in verse 20: "And I bear record that the people of Nephi did seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true faith in God. But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding on beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us."

So the Lamanites were in pretty bad condition at the time. The Nephites, though a very civil people (see verse 21), could quickly degenerate if they weren't careful. A lot of effort had to go into keeping them in line, as we read in verses 22 and 23: "And there were exceedingly many prophets among us. And the people were a stiffnecked people, hard to understand. And there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgements and the power of God, and all these things -- stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord. I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going down speedily to destruction. And after this manner do I write concerning them."

Enos mentions that wars are ongoing between the Nephites and the Lamanites, and closes the record with his testimony.

Enos' son Jarom took care of the plates next, and his account is brief. The picture he paints of the state of the Nephites is not pretty. He mentions the ongoing wars with the Lamanites, and the efforts of the prophets and teachers to keep the Nephites in line. Verses 3 and 4 read: "Behold, it is expedient that much should be done among this people, because of the hardness of their hearts, and the deafness of their ears, and the blindness of their minds, and the stiffness of their necks; nevertheless, God is exceedingly merciful unto them, and has not as yet swept them off from the face of the land. And there are many among us who have many revelations, for they are not all stiffnecked. And as many as are not stiffnecked and have faith, have communion with the Holy Spirit, which maketh manifest unto the children of men, according to their faith." That verse 4 is very interesting; it should hit close to home. I meet too many members of the Church who do not believe in contemporary revelation. There are members who scoff at the stories of guidance from the Spirit, who are skeptical that a priesthood blessing was directly related to a recovery from illness or injury, and who claim that angels no longer minister unto men. And yet those who have faith still receive revelations and are blessed with miracles on a daily basis. We ought to take care and be wary of which description fits us better.

Verses 10 and 11 of Jarom: "And it came to pass that the prophets of the Lord did threaten the people of Nephi, according to the word of God, that if they did not keep the commandments, but should fall into transgression, they should be destroyed from off the face of the land. Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them." Jarom mentions again that this was the only way to keep them from being destroyed.

Jarom's son Omni was the next to keep the plates, and we read a little about him in Omni verse 2: "Wherefore, in my days, I would that ye should know that I fought much with the sword to preserve my people, the Nephites, from falling into the hands of their enemies, the Lamanites. But behold, I of myself am a wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done."

Omni's son Amaron then kept the plates, and continued writing in the book of Omni. We read about his day in verses 5 through 7: "Behold, it came to pass that three hundred and twenty years had passed away, and the more wicked part of the Nephites were destroyed. For the Lord would not suffer, after he had led them out of the land of Jerusalem and kept and preserved them from falling into the hands of their enemies, yea, he would not suffer that the words should not be verified, which he spake unto our fathers, saying that: Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall not prosper in the land. Wherefore, the Lord did visit them in great judgement; nevertheless, he did spare the righteous that they should not perish, but did deliver them out of the hands of their enemies."

After Amaron writes, he passes the plates onto his brother, Chemish. Chemish passes them on to Abinadom who writes (verse 11): "I know of no revelation save that which has been written, neither prophecy." So the Nephites weren't doing too well in the days of Abinadom. Amaleki, the son of Abinadom then takes over the narrative, and he's going to tell us of a few interesting events.

In the days of Amaleki there was this guy named Mosiah who was instructed by the Lord to take the few righteous people left among the Nephites and flee into the wilderness. We'll see that, except for a group of Nephites who travel back down for a while, the Lamanites from now on inhabit the land of Nephi. Mosiah and his people end up in a land called Zarahemla. Well, they find a people there who are of Jewish descent, but not descendents of Lehi. Verse 15 informs us: "Behold, it came to pass that Mosiah discovered that the people of Zarahemla came out from Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon." We'll find later that it is Zedekiah's youngest son, Mulek, who led these people out of Jerusalem. They were taught the language of the Nephites, which had been preserved a little better since the Mulekites hadn't brought any written records with them.

Something else interesting happens in the days of Mosiah: they find the last remaining Jaredite. Verses 20 and 21: "And it came to pass in the days of Mosiah, there was a large stone brought unto him with engravings on it; and he did interpret the engravings on it by the gift and power of God. And they gave an account of one Coriantumr, and the slain of his people. And Coriantumr was discovered by the people of Zarahemla; and he dwelt with them for the space of nine moons." What a tragic story, that of Coriantumr, but we'll get into that later in the year. It's interesting though, to consider that all this time, while all these things were going on among the Nephites, the Jaredites were having these great battles up in the land northward.

King Benjamin is reigning at the end of this account, and another notable occurrence happens in verse 27: "And now I would speak somewhat concerning a certain number who went up into the wilderness to return to the land of Nephi; for there was a large number who were desirous to possess the land of their inheritance." These will end up being the people whose story is that of Zeniff, King Noah, Abinadi, and Alma.

Amaleki remarks that the plates are now full, and he delivers them to King Benjamin for safekeeping. Mormon's going to interject a few words, and most of the rest of the Book of Mormon will be his abridgement of the large plates.

In verse 1 of the Words of Mormon, Mormon mentions that he was "about to deliver up the record... into the hands of [his] son, Moroni." Just before he did so, though, something interesting happened. He had just finished an abridgment of the history of the Nephites from Nephi down to King Benjamin when he stumbled upon the small plates, which discussed the same time period. He writes in verses 4 and 5: "And the things which are upon these plates pleasing me, because of the prophecies of the coming of Christ; and my fathers knowing that many of them have been fulfilled; yea, and I also know that as many things as have been prophesied concerning us down to this day have been fulfilled, and as many as go beyond this day must surely come to pass -- Wherefore, I chose these things, to finish my record upon them, which remainder of my record I shall take from the plates of Nephi; and I cannot write the hundredth part of the things of my people." So he's going to stick these small plates in with the abridgement he wrote. In verse 7 he mentions: "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will." Well, the wise purpose is to replace Mormon's abridgement of this same period of history, since the translation of it was lost by Martin Harris.

Mormon also gives us a bit of info on the days of King Benjamin, which keeps some continuity in the narrative. There were wars with the Lamanites, of course, and stiffneckedness among the Nephites, so King Benjamin had a lot of work to do to keep the Nephites in line. We'll finish off with the last verse in Words of Mormon, verse 18: "Wherefore, with the help of these [holy men], king Benjamin, by laboring with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets, did once more establish peace in the land."

Sidney B. Sperry, Book of Mormon Compendium (Bookcraft, 1968).

F.N. Peloubet, Peloubet's Bible Dictionary (Universal Book and Bible House, 1947).

Church Educational System, Book of Mormon Student Manual (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1996).