Sponsored by The Interpreter Foundation Cosponsored by the BYU Department of Ancient Scripture, FAIR Latter-day Saints, Scripture Central, and the Ancient America Foundation (including the Faith Creators Alliance)
Regarding the small plates of Nephi, President Jeffrey R. Holland wrote:
At least six times in the Book of Mormon, the phrase “for a wise purpose” is used in reference to the making, writing, and preserving of the small plates of Nephi . . . . We know one such wise purpose—the most obvious one—was to compensate for the future loss of 116 pages of manuscript translated by the Prophet Joseph . . . . But it strikes me that there is a “wiser purpose” than that, or perhaps more accurately, a “wiser purpose” in that. The key to such a suggestion is in Doctrine and Covenants 10:45 . . . “Behold, there are many things engraven upon the [small] plates of Nephi which do throw greater views upon my gospel” (emphasis added). So clearly this was not a quid pro quo in the development of the final Book of Mormon product. It was not tit for tat, this for that—116 pages of manuscript for 142 pages of printed text. Not so. We got back more than we lost. And it was known from the beginning that it would be so. We do not know exactly what we have missed in the lost 116 pages, but we do know that what we received on the small plates was the personal declarations of three great witnesses, three of the great doctrinal voices of the Book of Mormon, testifying that Jesus is the Christ. (“For a Wise Purpose,” Ensign, January 1996)
In the interest of deepening Latter-day Saint understanding and appreciation of the text, context, and doctrine of 1 Nephi through Words of Mormon. The conference proceedings will “throw greater views” on the authors of the small plates of Nephi and its contents, thus showing how the small plates “throw greater views” on Jesus Christ and his everlasting gospel (Doctrine and Covenants 10:45).