Mormon describes Captain Moroni as "a man of a perfect understanding" (Alma 48:11). According to Thomas Valletta, today's readers, living in an age of excessive and empty flattery, can miss the power and intent of Mormon's tribute . . . Mormon's descriptive phrase "perfect understanding" has profound significance when we view it in historical context, for it shows that Moroni himself excelled at keeping covenants. . . .
In the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, "perfect" means "finished or complete," which is consistent with the Hebrew terms translated "perfect" in the King James Version of the Bible. To state, therefore that Captain Moroni was "a man of a perfect understanding" is to declare that he diligently studied and lived by the sacred word of God, and that he understood the consequences of not giving heed to the covenants. Moroni's own testimony to Zerahemnah supports this conclusion:
we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness and by all that is most dear unto us. (Alma 44:5)
[Thomas R. Valletta, "The Captain and the Covenant," in The Book of Mormon: Alma, The Testimony of the Word, pp. 230,232]
The Lord Confirms the Covenant Way
Alma 45 -- 3 Nephi 10