Nephi closes this experience by testifying to its truthfulness. Reynolds and Sjodahl suggest that the closing “and thus it is. Amen” may “indicate that the foregoing, from the beginning of chapter 11, was intended as a sermon and was delivered as such. Undoubtedly, the family of Lehi held regular services on the Sabbath, and the vision, as related, would naturally form a fruitful subject for discourses.”
While this speculation is reasonable, nothing in the text supports it. The apocalyptic vision and the references it contains appear directed more to a modern audience than an ancient one. The particular restriction of themes so closely related to the latter days makes it difficult to believe that this particular vision was, at least in its written form, ever given as a sermon to Nephi’s contemporaries. The vision reads much more like Nephi’s personal experience, recorded for personal reasons in a record separate from those he had obviously already worked on. The suggestion that it might have been a sermon does not fit with the presentation of the text.
See the commentary accompanying 1 Nephi 9:6 for a discussion of “and this it is, amen.”
Text: This ends a chapter in the 1830 edition.