Evidently Nephi made two sets of plates upon which he wrote the history of his people. During his lifetime and for several generations following, the religious history of the people was written upon the small plates of Nephi and the secular or nonreligious history was written upon the large plates of Nephi. After approximately 130 B.C., however, the small plates of Nephi were discontinued; then both the religious and secular histories were recorded on the large plates of Nephi. Nephi evidently made the large plates of Nephi soon after his arrival in the promised land. (See 1 Nephi 19:1-5.) However, he did not make the small plates of Nephi until approximately 570 B.C., some thirty years after his father had left Jerusalem. (See 2 Nephi 5:28-33.)