Todd Parker asks, "do any of those words [in Mosiah 11:27] sound familiar?" "Who is Abinadi?" "Who is the Lord?" Have you heard those words before? In Exodus 5:2, the Pharaoh says: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." You can go back even farther in time to Moses 5:16 and see where Cain said the same thing: "Who is the Lord that I should know him?" King Noah's reply here is the same as some of the devil's most distinguished servants of the past. [Todd Parker, "Abinadi: The Man and the Message (Part 1)," F.A.R.M.S., p. 3]
“Who is the Lord?”
According to Alan Goff, the Book of Mormon has a considerable number of narrative analogies--stories similar to other stories in the book or to biblical stories. The normal pattern for non-believers when they come across these stories is to dismiss these parts of the Book of Mormon as a superficial plagiary, either of the Bible, or of other parts of the Book of Mormon. However, the faithful Book of Mormon student should realize that both Hebrew narrative and biblical narrative relish repetition. Moreover, other than the Bible, there is no book more intertextual than the Book of Mormon. Narrative mirroring is so common in biblical literature that Robert Alter has given it the name of "type-scenes."
In Mosiah 11:21-26, Abinadi calls the people of Noah to repentance in language heavy with Exodus symbolism. King Noah's responds: "Who is Abinadi, that I and my people shall be judged of him, or who is the Lord, that shall bring upon my people such great affliction" (Mosiah 11:27). This is not only reminiscent of Pharaoh who said to Moses: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice" (Exodus 5:2), but also of the Israelite who challenged Moses' right to lead: "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" (Exodus 2:14). It is also reminiscent of Moses himself, who said to the Lord: "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?" (Exodus 3:11).
Regarding the debate between Moses and Pharaoh about to whom the children of Israel belonged, the Lord's command was, "Let my people go" (Exodus 5:1). This is the context for Pharaoh's reply, "Who is the Lord?" Similarly, in the Book of Mormon narrative, the Lord and king Noah struggle over to whom these people belong: are they the Lord's servants or Noah's? The prophet Abinadi begins by calling them "this people" (Mosiah 11:23), but after king Noah calls them "my people" (Mosiah 11:27,28) Abinadi begins to state assertively: "Thus has the Lord commanded me, saying--Abinadi, go and prophesy unto this my people" (Mosiah 12:1). He does this in spite of the fact that the people assert that they belong to Noah, not the Lord (Mosiah 12:13).
The Book of Mormon student will observe that the claim that the people are the Lord's will continue throughout the Abinadi narrative in the book of Mosiah. [See the commentary on Mosiah 12:1; 12:2; 12:3; 12:11] [Alan Goff, "Uncritical Theory and Thin Description: The Resistance to History," in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 7, Num. 1, F.A.R.M.S., 1995, pp. 188-189, 193]