Basic
- What period of time was this chapter reportedly written in?
- How many books of the Bible does this chapter draw from, either through textual echoes or nearly exact quotations? (cf. Moroni 10)
- Were there any substantial changes made to this chapter from the 1830 edition?
- Does this chapter sound like careful, condensed writing being compressed for etching on metallic plates, or does it sound like an extended oral performance?
Moderate
- What popular questions or anxieties (contemporary to Joseph Smith) does this chapter address?
- Are there touch points or conversational bridges available in this chapter for discussing the gospel with Latter-day Saints?
Advanced
- Does this chapter help Joseph Smith fill in the gap of the lost 116 pages?
- What movements or positions within (or outside) historic Christianity does this chapter condemn?
- Does this chapter parallel events in Joseph Smith’s own life, or that of his family?
- Does this chapter advocate for early restorationist positions that were later abandoned by the Latter-day Saint movement?
- Does this chapter better reflect ancient messianic Judaism and ancient Native American culture, or 19th century folk Protestantism?
- How would the various LDS translation theories explain this chapter—through divine foreknowledge, dictating the prior work of a proxy translator, or Smith’s own creative expansion?