The Testimony of Zenock

Zenock, the otherwise unknown prophet of Old Testament times, is mentioned five times in the Book of Mormon.  One of those is simply Amulek’s reference to the fact that Alma quoted Zenock, so there are really only four mentions of Zenock that tell us anything about this prophet.  Each of the four references show specifically how Zenock was a witness of the Son of God.  Nephi was the first to quote him as he spoke about the coming of the Messiah: he said the Christ would be “lifted up, according to the words of Zenock” (1 Nephi 19:10).  As Alma spoke about believing on the Son of God to the Zoramites, he quoted Zenock as saying, “Thou art angry, O Lord, with this people, because they will not understand thy mercies which thou hast bestowed upon them because of thy Son” (Alma 33:16).  He then added a brief historical fact saying, “Because the people would not understand his words they stoned him to death” (Alma 33:17).  So Zenock was killed specifically for his testimony of the Savior.  Nephi, the son of Helaman, mentioned Zenock as one of several prophets who testified that the Son of God should come.  The reference also tells us that Zenock lived after Abraham because he is one of those listed as being “since the days of Abraham” (Helaman 8:19-20).  Finally, Mormon mentioned Zenock as one of the prophets who was slain because he testified of the events surrounding the death of the Savior.  Apparently he spoke of the “death and destructions by fire, and by smoke, and by tempests, and by whirlwinds, and by the opening of the earth” that the Nephites experienced at the time of the death of the Savior.  Mormon wrote that “Zenock spake concerning these things, because they testified particularly concerning us” (3 Nephi 10:16).  So from all of this we gather that Zenock was a prophet who lived after Abraham, testified of the Son of God, spoke at least to some degree about the Nephites, and was stoned by the people because of his testimony of the Savior.  Hopefully someday as the Lord reveals more scripture to us we will have a more complete record of his testimony of Christ.