1 Nephi 4

(July 7, 2014)

                There are things that don’t seem plausible to our modern ears, and which would not have seemed plausible to 19^th Century ears, but which ring true to what we know about ancient Israel.  For example, why didn’t Zoram recognize Nephi?  Was it because Nephi’s face looked like Laban?  Not likely.  Far more reasonably, Zoram had likely never seen Laban up close, but rather only from a distance.  When Laban needed something from the treasury, he didn’t walk down and get it himself in the usual course of things, but rather he would send a servant on his behalf.  Zoram might have seen Laban at some function or another from a distance, but never close enough to make out Nephi in the darkness.  He may have had his suspicions, which might have prompted the number of questions (an odd fact), but he clearly couldn’t be sure Nephi wasn’t Laban.