After this declaration that he will read “the remainder of the commandments of God,” Abinadi recites a version of the Decalogue. Those are certainly “the commandments of God” that the priests likely declared they taught as the law. The essential message, however, will come in verses 28–31.
Why does Abinadi declare that he will “read” the text that has he been quoting up to this moment? The record gives no indication that he was already reading, nor that he had earlier read the earlier Isaiah passage. Perhaps Mormon had omitted this detail. Abinadi could have asked for the scriptures and then read from them. He could even have walked over to the priests’ section of the court, cowing them with his glowing visage and obvious authority and appropriating a book of scripture from which he continues his discourse. Another possible explanation is a broader interpretation of “read,” and Abinadi is “reading” them the law just as one might be “read” his rights.
Of course Abinadi was literate, or he would have had much more difficulty in memorizing the lengthy passages he does quote. His literacy also strengthens Tvedtnes’s suggestion (see commentary accompanying Mosiah 11:20) that Abinadi might have been a deposed priest of Zeniff—both literate and with access to the scriptures.