Keywords

typology, Moses typology, Biblical typology, Book of Mormon

Abstract

Our understanding of Lehi’s leadership comes through the writings of his son Nephi. While it has been previously noted that Nephi chose to tell the story of his reign and ministry (1 Nephi 10:1) in such a way that his readers would see Nephi himself as a second Moses, it has not been much observed that it may have been his father, Lehi, who first employed this device to persuade his descendants of his own divine calling. In this paper I will show that Lehi had used this device in an attempt to persuade his descendants to accept his difficult instructions and that in portraying himself as a second Moses, Nephi was following a model established at least two decades earlier by his own father.

Original Publication Citation

“Lehi as Moses,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 9 (No. 2, 2000):26–35.