Jacob, having been ordained to the Holy Priesthood by Nephi and appointed by him to a high office therein, continued to minister with much zeal among the people; teaching them by word of mouth, the wonderful things revealed to him of the glory of Christ, the Messiah, whose coming was as yet, many hundreds of years away. He labored throughout all the difficulties of engraving his words upon metal plates that their children might know that their fathers knew of Christ and had a hope of his mission centuries before his birth among the children of men. Furthermore, he says that this hope and this knowledge was had by "all the holy prophets which were before us."
These prophecies and teachings were engraved upon plates of metal that they might endure and remain as an indestructible media of transmission; not to pass away and vanish as other means are apt to do. 1