Great post, which makes me wonder why there are only three comments here, and over 125 on the sacrament meeting prayer rule.

I hadn’t thought that much about Zeniff until I reread this section of the BoM this week. I read it in a little different light than before, but I’ll not claim the depth of insight that you showed here. It was the comment he made about “that which was good among them” that caused me to wonder, what was it that he saw? There are lots of fascinating little glimpses into personalities in the Book of Mormon, and another that sprang to mind is Abish, the female servant of King Lamoni’s wife. She’s one of the very few women actually give n names in the BoM, and one begs to know the story of the vision of her father, that caused her to convert. Then, when she follows her prompting to bring as many people to the king’s house to see what is going on, and finds that it causes contention, rather than a mass conversion, she cries in frustration. All of her life, keeping a secret about her religion, and then her one big chance to testify seems to be going wildly astray. Just as suddenly as she appears in the narrative, she then disappears.

I can almost see Mormon’s wife, looking over his shoulder as he edits the plates, saying “You better at least mention her name!”

PS- If I were a betting man, I’m guessing that Captain Moroni was a Republican, and Zeniff was a Democrat.

Go Zeniff!