His Reign and Ministry

In some of the books in the Book of Mormon, there is a brief summary of the book before the first chapter.  In some cases, before that summary there is an even shorter phrase or description that also gives some information about the book directly after the name of the book.  This is the case in the following books with that subheading in italics (colons added):

·        THE FIRST BOOK OF NEPHI: HIS REIGN AND MINISTRY

·        THE BOOK OF JACOB: THE BROTHER OF NEPHI

·        THE BOOK OF ALMA: THE SON OF ALMA

·        THIRD NEPHI THE BOOK OF NEPHI: THE SON OF NEPHI, WHO WAS THE SON OF HELAMAN

·        FOURTH NEPHI THE BOOK OF NEPHI: WHO IS THE SON OF NEPHI—ONE OF THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST

Most of these subheadings are simply a description of who the person was in relation to a previous person in the Book of Mormon, and they lead into the longer description that follows (but is still before the first chapter).  1 Nephi is the only exception to that and the subheading for that book is interesting to me: “His reign and ministry.”  I don’t know who wrote that—perhaps Mormon added it when he read through the small plates, or perhaps it was Nephi just speaking about himself in third person. 

           What strikes me as odd is the fact that it is only in 2 Nephi that Nephi became a king, and thus had a “reign” to speak of, but it is on the 1 Nephi that the subheading “his reign and ministry” appears.  What is the significance of this description?  Nephi did use the same language in one place in his text in 1 Nephi 10:1 which reads, “And now I, Nephi, proceed to give an account upon these plates of my proceedings, and my reign and ministry.”  He does seem to suggest that what he was writing about in 1 Nephi, before he was actually a king of the people, was part of that reign and ministry.  If we look at it using the definition of reign as “to have control, rule, or influence of any kind,” then clearly we see that throughout the first book of Nephi.  He had enormous influence on his family and without his leadership they would not have made it to the promised land.  The Lord told Nephi very early on that he would be a ruler to his family: “And inasmuch as thou shalt keep my commandments, thou shalt be made a ruler and a teacher over thy brethren” (1 Nephi 2:22).  Soon thereafter when the angel came to Laman and Lemuel to stop them from beating Nephi, he said, “Why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities?” (1 Nephi 3:29)  From the time they left Jerusalem it was already made known unto Laman and Lemuel that Nephi was indeed to be a ruler over them.  In that sense Nephi’s “reign” began from then as he served as their spiritual leader, even if he wouldn’t become an official king to his people decades later.  And by the end of his life, after reigning as king among his people, they “loved Nephi exceedingly” and “were desirous to retain in remembrance his name,” extending his reign even after his death as the name of Nephi was persisted in the “reign of the kings” (Jacob 1:11).