Text: This address is not Jacob’s first sermon. Certainly Nephi had never stopped preaching to his people, but, obviously, Jacob also actively preached and taught the gospel during Nephi’s lifetime (obvious because Nephi is recording this sermon).
It is also significant from the standpoint of defining social order that Jacob is preaching. Not all of the political and religious functions are exclusively centered in Nephi. This separation of responsibilities tells us that the social order allows for more than one “official” or important person, which, in turn continues to argue for a larger community than we might expect from just those who came from the Old World.
Perhaps the fact that Nephi assigned Jacob to speak (2 Ne. 6:4) suggests the beginning of a political/religious division of duties, with Nephi retaining political responsibility while Jacob assumes ecclesiastical responsibility. The fact that Nephi created two sets of plates, which are transmitted according to a political/religious division, furthers this possibility. Jacob is the next recipient of the small plates because of his ecclesiastical function, for he introduces his own writings on them by saying:
For behold, it came to pass that fifty and five years had passed away from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem; wherefore, Nephi gave me, Jacob, a commandment concerning the small plates, upon which these things are engraven.
And he gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious; that I should not touch, save it were lightly, concerning the history of this people which are called the people of Nephi.
For he said that the history of his people should be engraven upon his other plates, and that I should preserve these plates and hand them down unto my seed, from generation to generation. (Jacob 1:1–3)
Jacob was the religious leader, but not the political leader, for he adds that the aging Nephi “anointed a man to be a king and a ruler over his people now, according to the reigns of the kings” (Jacob 1:9). This man was not Jacob, especially since the kings took the name of Nephi (Jacob 1:11). Thus, Jacob is the guardian and next recorder of the small plates, while an unnamed (but titled) king is the guardian of the large plates.