(June 7, 2014)
I wonder what the Lord’s purpose for giving the extensive quotations of Malachi were for. Looking at it, I could see three obvious reasons. First, to provide it in a format that was error-free (whether the errors were Malachi’s, or were innocently or maliciously altered by subsequent redactors). Second, to reiterate them to communicate their importance. And finally, they were of use for the Nephites in their day.
Of those three, I think that the most likely is option one. After all, if it was just provided for the Nephites, Mormon would not have included them on the plates. Christ explicitly said that they were in existence elsewhere (of course, that presumes Mormon understood that there would be subsequent contact between the Old World and the New World). As I think about it, if this was important enough for Christ to provide and for Mormon to write, it is probably worth my time to go back and very carefully examine the differences between what Christ provided and what is in the Old Testament.
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