Brian Stubbs on the Internal Consistency in the Book of Mormon

  

A striking consistency is that the first books (Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, Omni) and Mormon and Moroni are all in 1^st person (I/me) while the books of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, Third and Fourth Nephi, and ether are all in 3^rd person (he/him). A fabricator would not have thought to be so careful. So Mormon writes: “king Benjamin had continual peace . . . “ (Mosiah 1:1); “in the first year of the reign of Alma . . .” (Alma 1:2); “And it came to pass that Helaman . . . “ (Helaman 2:2); “Nephi, the son of Helaman . . . departed out of the land . . . “ (3 Nephi 1:2-3); etc. At times Mormon includes 1^st person quotes from those records he abridges, but those book are generally in 3^rd person. However, Mormon put the small plates with his abridgement, so Joseph Smith translates directly from the original authors of the small plates: “I, Nephi, having . . .” (1 Nephi 1:1); “Nephi gave me, Jacob . . . “ (Jacob 1;1); “I, Enos, knowing my father to be a just man . . .” (Enos 1:1); “I, Jarom, write a few words . . .” (Jarom 1:1); etc. Then, as mentioned above, Mosiah to 3 Nephi are in 3^rd person, until Mormon’s own book, where the narrative switches back to 1^st person: “And now I, Mormon, make a record . . .” (Mormon 1:1). For a fabricator to keep all that straight would be highly unlikely. (Brian D. Stubbs, Changes in Languages from Nephi to Now [2d ed.; N.P.: Brian D. Stubbs, 2020], 17-18)