“The Things Which We Write Upon Plates Must Remain”

W. Cleon Skousen

It would appear that Jacob picked up his stylus to continue his writing toward the end of his life and long after he had written the three chapters which we have just finished. Jacob wanted us to know that he had done a tremendous amount of preaching and teaching in his day, but could not write much of it because of the difficulty in engraving their words on metal plates. This was a slow and tedious task, but a most important one. At least they knew that whatever they painfully inscribed on metal plates would survive.

If they wrote on anything but metal plates, Jacob said it would perish and vanish away. Therefore he said they were determined to record for their children, that is the remnant of their descendants who would receive these things in subsequent generations, a small degree of knowledge concerning their fathers.

“Because of the Difficulty of Engraving Upon Plates”

It would appear that Jacob picked up his stylus to continue his writing toward the end of his life and long after he had written the three chapters which we have just finished. Jacob wanted us to know that he had done a tremendous amount of preaching and teaching in his day, but could not write much of it because of the difficulty in engraving their words on metal plates. This was a slow and tedious task, but a most important one. At least they knew that whatever they painfully inscribed on metal plates would survive.

If they wrote on anything but metal plates, Jacob said it would perish and vanish away. Therefore he said they were determined to record for their children, that is the remnant of their descendants who would receive these things in subsequent generations, a small degree of knowledge concerning their fathers.

Treasures from the Book of Mormon

References