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Question

 

Gramps,

Who was the father of King Mosiah?  There doesn’t seem to be a patriarchal link. I’m referring to the first King Mosiah, not his grandson, a subsequent king.

Floyd

 

Answer

 

Floyd,

We know very little about the kings of the Nephites between Nephi’s death (about 545 BC) and the rise of Mosiah (around 130 BC).  Indeed, we know very little about Nephite secular history generally during this period.  The problem is complicated by the fact that the first few chapters of Mosiah were apparently part of the 116 pages lost by Martin Harris.  These missing chapters may have filled in some of the blanks; unfortunately, they are not now available for study.

Jacob records that, in memory of Nephi, succeeding kings developed a tradition of assuming the regnal name of “Nephi” regardless of what their names had been prior to accession to the Nephite throne (Jacob 1:11).  About two hundred years after Nephi’s death, Jarom observed that “our kings and our leaders were mighty men in the faith of the Lord; and they taught the people the ways of the Lord” (Jarom 1:7).  From these assertions, one might hypothesize that Mosiah’s father was a righteous man who reigned under the name of “Nephi”.

 

Gramps

 

 

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