Ye Have Not Written This Thing
Before Nephi, the son of Helaman, disappeared from the land, he transferred the responsibility of keeping the Nephite records to his son Nephi. Mormon recorded, “Then he departed out of the land, and whither he went, no man knoweth; and his son Nephi did keep the records in his stead, yea, the record of this people” (3 Nephi 1:3). He emphasized this point again in the next chapter: “And Nephi, who was the father of Nephi, who had the charge of the records, did not return to the land of Zarahemla, and could nowhere be found in all the land” (3 Nephi 2:9). It appears that the phrase “who had the charge of the records” was meant to describe Nephi the son and not the father since it was the son who had been given the records (suggesting that perhaps the second comma in the verse should not be there). Mormon again mentioned Nephi’s responsibility to keep the record as he spoke of his own responsibility with the records, “But behold there are records which do contain all the proceedings of t