Some might wonder how
it is that Samuel, a Lamanite, would have had the words of previous Nephite
prophets. Approximately fifty years before Samuel preached in Zarahemla,
"all those engravings which were in the possession of Helaman were written
and sent forth among the children of men throughout all the land" (Alma
63:12). Such a sending forth of the prophetic word would surely have been made
available to many Lamanites who converted twenty years later (see Helaman 5). Indeed,
while we do not have any record of Samuel's conversion, his sermon in Zarahemla
was delivered twenty-five years after the miraculous preaching of Nephi2
and his brother in the land of Nephi. Perhaps Samuel was one of Nephi2’s
converts from the prison in the land of Nephi (see Helaman 5:40-50). This
possibility is suggested by Dennis L. Largey, "Samuel the Lamanite,"
in Book of Mormon Reference Companion, ed. Dennis L. Largey (Salt Lake
City: Deseret Book, 2003), 697. If that were the case, one can imagine what
Nephi2’s direct lineal connection to previous Book of Mormon record
keepers would have only enhanced Samuel's access to and interest in these
records, as well as the possibility that Samuel would have had ways of learning
about the contemporary preaching of Nephi2. (John Hilton III, Sunny
Hendry Hafen, and Jaron Hansen, “Samuel’s Nephite Sources,” in Charles Swift,
ed., Samuel the Lamanite: That Ye Might Believe [Provo, Utah: Religious
Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book], 223-50,
here, pp. 243-44 n. 10)