This change may be another
simplification measure, but it may also be Abinadi’s deliberate adaptation to
his trial before the priests. Because they were building new religious elements
on the fundamental law of Moses, they probably had not attempted to alter with
its most basic belief in one God, even if the people included converts from
polytheistic cultures. In fact, such converts are typically even more
protective of their new religious principles than lifetime believers. Thus, it
seems unlikely that the priests of Noah had attempted to introduce new gods.
Rather they had probably reinterpreted the law to effectively deny the salvific
role of that one God. . . . Because Abinadi’s defense of the Messiah accuses
them of departing from that belief he may have deliberately shifted to the singular
form (“God”) rather than quoting the original (“gods”) because it would be easy
for the priests to deny that they worshipped multiple gods. However, Abinadi’s
point is not polytheism but a perversion of the worship of the One God. (Brant
A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book
of Mormon, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007], 3:275)
