“The Plates of Nephi are so named from the fact that they were prepared and their record was begun by Nephi, son of Lehi. These plates were of two kinds, which may be distinguished as the larger plates and the smaller plates. Nephi began his labors as a recorder by engraving on his plates a historical account of his people from the time his father left Jerusalem. This account recited the story of their wanderings, their prosperity and distress, the reigns of their kings and the wars and contentions of the people; the record was in the nature of a secular history… .
“By command of the Lord, Nephi made other plates, upon which he recorded particularly what may be called in a broad sense the ecclesiastical history of his people, citing only such instances of other events as seemed necessary to the proper sequence of the narrative. ‘I have received a commandment of the Lord, ’ says Nephi, ‘that I should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people.’ The object of this double line of history was unknown to Nephi; it was enough for him that the Lord required the labor”
(The Articles of Faith, pp. 263–64).