Words of Mormon 1: The Small Plates, Mormon's Abridgment, and King Benjamin's Victory
The most valuable tool in my workshop is not a plane or a chisel or a bandsaw. It is a pencil. I spend more time looking at a board and deciding what to remove than I do actually cutting it. A good piece of furniture is not made by adding things. It is made by taking away the things that do not belong. You start with a rough slab and you keep paring down until the shape underneath reveals itself.
That is what Mormon was doing with the records.
The Words of Mormon is a short book of one chapter. It does not cover new history. It explains why the history you already have is arranged the way it is. Mormon is standing at the end of a thousand years of records, deciding what to keep and what to leave out, and he stops to tell you how he made his choices.
"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." (Words of Mormon 1:7)
Why Did Mormon Abridge the Book of Mormon
The plates were heavy. That is the literal answer. Mormon could not include everything. He says in verse 5 that he is making an abridgment from the plates of Nephi up to his own time. He had a stack of records and he had to decide which ones mattered most for the reader he would never meet.
I find that interesting because Mormon does not pretend to be neutral. He is not writing a complete history for historians. He is writing a spiritual record for people who need to know about Christ. Everything he keeps serves that purpose. Everything he leaves out is information that would not help someone get closer to God.
That is a hard discipline. Most of us keep things because we might need them someday. Mormon kept things because they were the only things that mattered.
Purpose of the Small Plates of Nephi
Mormon includes the small plates of Nephi even though he already has a more complete record on the large plates. He explains this in verse 4. He says the small plates contain prophecies and teachings that support his own abridgment. But verse 6 adds something deeper. He says he did it for a wise purpose that he did not fully understand at the time.
I like that line. It suggests that Mormon was working on instinct as much as strategy. He had been commanded to include the small plates, so he included them, trusting that there was a reason even if he could not see it yet. That is what obedience looks like when you are not sure why you are doing something.
The small plates became the first half of the Book of Mormon. Without them, we would not have 1 Nephi through Omni. Mormon preserved something he did not fully understand, and generations of readers have been grateful for it.
How Did King Benjamin Drive Out the Lamanites
The chapter shifts suddenly. One verse Mormon is talking about records. The next verse he is talking about a war. King Benjamin faced repeated attacks from the Lamanites during his reign, and he led his people in a military campaign that drove them out.
Mormon does not give many details. He says King Benjamin fought with the strength of the Lord and that the Lamanites were driven out. That is it. No battle plans or heroic death. Just a king who defended his people and then went back to ruling them in peace.
I appreciate the brevity. Mormon could have spent pages on the war but he chose not to. The important thing was not how King Benjamin fought. The important thing was that he was a righteous king who kept his people safe so they could continue growing in the gospel.
Difference Between Large and Small Plates in the Book of Mormon
The large plates contained a more complete history of the Nephite people. Wars, kings, political events, the full sweep of their civilization. The small plates were narrower. They focused on the ministry of the prophets and the spiritual life of the people.
Mormon used both. He drew from the large plates for his abridgment of everything from Mosiah onward. He added the small plates whole, without editing them down. The result is a record that moves between two kinds of writing. One is a summary compressed and shaped by a single editor. The other is a primary source, preserved exactly as it was written by people who lived through it.
A similar thing happens in the Omni record, where a series of record keepers hand the plates down across generations. Each one adds something, and the result is a chain of voices rather than a single narrative.
Significance of Words of Mormon in Scripture Study
Words of Mormon teaches something that is easy to miss. It teaches that the scriptures were assembled by real people making real decisions. Mormon did not transcribe a finished book from heaven. He worked with what he had. He made choices and trusted impressions that he did not fully understand.
That does not make the scriptures less inspired. It makes them more human. The Book of Mormon is the product of a man who spent his life curating the words of other people because he believed those words would matter to someone on the other side of a thousand years.
When I read Words of Mormon, I see a woodworker looking at a stack of rough lumber and deciding which boards are worth keeping. He does not keep everything. He keeps what will hold.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Mormon include the small plates in his record?
He included them because they contained a focused spiritual history of the Nephites, emphasizing the prophets and the teachings of Christ. This supplemented the more political history found in the large plates.
What was the outcome of King Benjamin's battle with the Lamanites?
Through the strength of the Lord, King Benjamin and his army defeated the Lamanites and drove them out of the land. This secured a period of peace for his people.
What is the main purpose of the book of Words of Mormon?
It serves as an editorial bridge. It explains how Mormon curated the records he chose to abridge and provides context for why the Book of Mormon is structured the way it is.
What is the difference between the large plates and the small plates?
The large plates contained a broader political and military history. The small plates focused on spiritual teachings and prophecy. Mormon used both but included the small plates in full.
I have a shelf in my garage where I keep offcuts that are too small to use for a full project but too good to throw away. Some of them have sat there for years. Every once in a while, I pick one up and find exactly what I need for a repair or a small detail piece. I do not know which ones will be useful when I set them aside. I just know that some of them will be.
Mormon set aside the small plates for a similar reason. He had no way of knowing who would need them. He trusted that someone would.
-- D.