A Part of Them Would Not Suffice

I have written before about the interesting fact that the prophet Nephi, the son of Nephi, is not mentioned in Mormon’s details about the happenings of the Nephite people for a period of about 30 years.  Nephi of course played a prominent role in the story of the believers at the time of the sign of the Savior’s birth recorded in 3 Nephi 1.  At that time, the 1^st year as they started keeping their calendar, he “went forth among the people, and also many others, baptizing unto repentance, in the which there was a great remission of sins” (3 Nephi 1:23).  Mormon mentioned after nine years had passed away that “Nephi, who was the father of Nephi, who had the charge of the records, did not return to the land of Zarahemla,” but he didn’t say anything that Nephi actually was doing.  In the whole affair of the war against the Gadianton robbers, Nephi was not mentioned once (3 Nephi 2:9).  After their miraculous preservation, Mormon did in a sort of side note tell us that his record was being taken from that of Nephi: “But behold there are records which do contain all the proceedings of this people; and a shorter but true account was given by Nephi.  Therefore I have made my record of these things according to the record of Nephi” (3 Nephi 5:9-10).  But Mormon still didn’t record any action taken by Nephi—we don’t have any record of something he did or said to the people during this time.  And then suddenly, as the wickedness of the people was escalating again, he suddenly came with full force again on the scene in the 31^st year: “And it came to pass that Nephi—having been visited by angels and also the voice of the Lord, therefore having seen angels, and being eye-witness, and having had power given unto him that he might know concerning the ministry of Christ…. And Nephi did minister with power and with great authority… For so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily” (3 Nephi 7:17-18).  Clearly if Nephi was keeping the record during these three decades he was among the people during this time, so why didn’t Mormon mention more of what he was doing? 

               Reading this morning I realize that Mormon did actually give us an interesting explanation.  Right after brining Nephi back on the scene, Mormon recorded, “And he did minister many things unto them; and all of them cannot be written, and a part of them would not suffice, therefore they are not written in this book” (3 Nephi 7:17).  It’s almost as if he was saying that Nephi’s marvelous works among the people were so great and numerous that he, Mormon, couldn’t record them all and felt that a partial treatment simply wouldn’t do.  He may have felt a bit like Moroni did when he was reading the account of the brother of Jared.  Moroni seems to have been a bit overwhelmed by how great the faith and words and deeds of the brother of Jared were: “So great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared.”  Moroni mourned over his own weakness to the Lord as compared to the brother of Jared, saying, “For thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them” (Ether 12:20, 24).  Perhaps out of respect for how sacred and incredible the preaching and miracles of Nephi were during these three decades that Mormon felt inadequate to do them justice and left the record silent.  But if Nephi was raising people from the dead and being visited daily by angels in the 31^st year, surely he hadn’t been dormant in his faith and mighty works in the previous period. 

Perhaps someday we will have the full account of both the works and revelations of the brother of Jared and the prophet Nephi, but for now we have “a lesser part” and the Lord “will try the faith of [His] people” before He will give us more scripture (3 Nephi 26:9, 11).  It may be that we need to adopt this reasoning of Mormon in our study of the scriptures that we do have.  He said that “a part of them would not suffice” so he didn’t write them; for us perhaps we should inversely say that a part of the words that we do have will not suffice—we will read and study and learn them all.  Learning only a few of the stories or understand just some of the scriptures will not suffice; we must recognize that “all scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable” (JST 2 Timothy 3:16).  Then, once we’ve shown our faith in all the words we have been given, we can trust that “the greater things be made manifest unto [us]” (3 Nephi 26:9).