Samuel and His Nephite Sources

While many scholars have written about the preaching of Samuel the Lamanite in the Book of Mormon, to date very little has been written about the intertextuality between Samuel's words and the teachings of other prophets in the book. The authors take on this task, identifying specific words in Samuel's preaching that appears to be drawn directly from the teachings of Nephi₁, Jacob, King Benjamin, Alma, Amulek, and Nephi₂. They focus on two themes in Samuel's preaching: Samuel's use of Nephite prophecies to indict the Nephites of his day and his use of phrases regarding the house of Israel to refer to the Lamanites. The authors also identify certain potential questions regarding this intertextuality, such as how accurate the record of Samuel's words, delivered from the city wall, might have been and how he could have been privy to conversations between the Nephites and Nephi₂, recorded in Helaman 11.