Nephi¹, son of Lehi and Sariah, was born in Jerusalem around 615 B.C. and founded the Nephite people. He opens his record by stating he was “born of goodly parents,” taught in his father’s learning, and “highly favored of the Lord” (1 Nephi 1:1). Though young, he was “large in stature,” and after he prayed the Lord softened his heart so that he believed his father’s words and did not rebel as his brothers Laman and Lemuel did (1 Nephi 2:16).
Sent with his brothers to obtain the brass plates from Laban in Jerusalem, Nephi¹ said he would go and do what the Lord commanded, “for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way” (1 Nephi 3:7). After two failed attempts, he killed Laban with Laban’s own sword at the prompting of the Spirit and took the records (1 Nephi 4:18). The Lord told him that if he kept the commandments he would be made “a ruler and a teacher” over his brethren, which set him at odds with Laman and Lemuel (1 Nephi 2:22).
The Lord commanded Nephi¹ to build a ship to carry the family across the sea to the promised land (1 Nephi 17:8-9). He built it not after the manner of men but as the Lord showed him; when it was finished his brothers acknowledged the workmanship was fine (1 Nephi 18:1-4). In the promised land he built a temple modeled on Solomon’s temple, taught his people, and they “lived after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:16, 27).
Nephi¹ kept two sets of plates: a larger set recording the reign of the kings and the wars of his people, and the smaller set he was commanded to make for an account of the ministry and prophecies, made for a purpose the Lord did not reveal to him (1 Nephi 9:1-6). His record includes a first-person vision of the birth, ministry, and death of Christ and the future of his seed and the house of Israel (1 Nephi 11-14). He formally named and set out “the doctrine of Christ” — faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end — and declared it the exclusive path to salvation: “this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 31:2, 21). He closed by calling Jew and all the ends of the earth to believe in Christ, declaring that his words would stand against the unbelieving at the judgment bar (2 Nephi 33:10-15). Later Nephite kings were called second Nephi, third Nephi, and so on, as the people kept his name in remembrance (Jacob 1:11).