What cultural insight might one find in the title "The Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world"? (1 Nephi 10:10). According to Alfred Edersheim, perhaps Jewish tradition may here prove both illustrative and helpful. That the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem was a settled conviction. Equally so was the belief, that He was to be revealed from Migdal Eder, "the tower of the flock" (Targum Pseudo- Jon on Gen. xxxv 21). This Migdal Eder was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks which pastured on the barren sheepground beyond Bethlehem, but lay close to the town [of Bethlehem], on the road to Jerusalem. A passage in the Mishnah (Shek. vii 4) leads to the conclusion that the flocks which pastured there were destined for Temple-sacrifices. In fact the Mishnah (Baba K. vii. 7) expressly forbids the keeping of flocks throughout the land of Israel, except in the wildernesses--and the only flocks otherwise kept, would be those for the Temple-services (Baba K. 80 a). Accordingly, the shepherds who watched over them were not ordinary shepherds. [Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, pp. 186-187]
Thus, the shepherds who "were in the same country" "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night," and who were visited by "the angel of the Lord," who went to Bethlehem and "found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger," and who "made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child" (Luke 2:8-17) were perhaps no ordinary shepherds, but specially chosen men of the priesthood who had been assigned to watch over and testify of the quality of the special lambs who would be symbolically sacrificed in the temple to take away the sins of the children of Israel. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes] [See the commentary on Alma 7:10]