The Words of Mormon is perhaps the most unusual book in the Book of Mormon. Offering his thoughts on the nature of the book, Patrick Bishop, in a recent work on the translation of the Book of Mormon, wrote the following which I reproduce to add some interesting food for thought:
Appendix III
Words of Mormon
Brent Metcalfe, in his book entitled New Approaches to the Book of Mormon, states that one area “of research needing further exploration [is the] Words of Mormon functioning as both preface and epilogue” (Brent Metcalfe, New Approaches to the Book of Mormon, 433). Although I do not agree with his research, I do believe that this topic is worth looking into. The problem as I see it is that there never will be enough information to come to any certain conclusions—unless the original manuscript is found for this chapter.
The questions that would be worthy of study are: Does this book represent the oldest translated portion of the Book of Mormon, a part that was retained when the 116 pages were lost or was it the final portion Joseph translated in the last week of June 1829 or both?
Studying the Words of Mormon based on the printer’s manuscript seems to create more questions than answers. In the printer’s manuscript, Words of Mormon was originally designated as chapter II and then corrected to chapter I. This could mean one of four things:
1) Words of Mormon is its own book, and Oliver Cowdery simply made a mistake when writing the chapter number.
2) Words of Mormon was originally chapter 2 of The book of Mosiah, and the original chapter 1 of the book of Mosiah is part of the missing 116 pages.
3) Words of Mormon was actually the second chapter to the book of Omni.
4) Words of Mormon is a collision between the small and large plates, meaning the first half of the book is from the small plates and the second half is from the large plates (See Jack M. Lyon and Kent R. Minson, “When Pages Collide,” BYU Studies Quarterly 51, no. 4 [2012], 120-36).
Options 2 and 4 seem more plausible, purely by just analyzing the manuscript. Rather than being a book in and of itself, it is possible that this book was originally chapter 2 of the book of Mosiah. The flow from the last verse of the Words of Mormon to the first phrase in the book of Mosiah seems to support this.
If Words of Mormon were originally chapter 2 of the book of Mosiah, then why would Joseph change the name to Words of Mormon. The following is a possible scenario. Perhaps the lost chapter 1 of the book of Mosiah was the story line of King Mosiah, King Benjamin, and King Mosiah the second. Then as Mormon does so often as a historian, he explains in chapter 2 his work with the plates. For one example of this, see 3 Nephi 5. Then in chapter 3 he picks up the story line again. When the original chapter 1 was lost, it would have seemed awkward to begin the book of Mosiah with a commentary on the plates; therefore, the name Words of Mormon was super-lineraly placed in the text and the chapter designation changed (see Figure 6, Chapter 3).
On the flip side, in Words of Mormon, Mormon speaks as if he is writing on the small plates (verse 3), calling them “these plates.” This would mean that Words of Mormon would have been the last thing Joseph translated. Option 4 allows for this.
In my view option 3 has little merit other than the fact that the book of Omni begins with chapter 1 and Words of Mormon is chapter 2. However, the break of two lines and the title Words of Mormon at the beginning and not inserted seems to show it was not part of the book of Omni.
As mentioned a few paragraphs earlier, the printer’s manuscript seems to create more questions than answers. (Patrick A. Bishop, Day After Day: The Translation of the Book of Mormon [2d ed.; Salt Lake City: Eborn Publishing, 2018], 107-8)
With respect to Bishop’s reference to the printer’s manuscript, here is the Printer’s Manuscript for Mosiah 1 where, of the three lines that make up the Roman numeral III, two have been crossed out, making this “Mosiah Chapter I” (Ibid., 18):
