It's not the title page. It's the page after that. It's the first page with anything on it besides the title. What does it say in the first sentence of the first paragraph?
"Wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi..."
What does that word 'abridgment' mean? It means that Mormon went through the original writings and made a condensed, shorter version. Presumably, this would mean that Mormon took out any non-essential words. Perhaps he removed whole phrases or even entire sentences. Certainly, he would not have removed anything important, but any redundant or wordy passages would have been rewritten to get down to the point where the idea was fully expressed in as few words as possible.
This then is our first PUZZLE. When we examine this abridgment of the record, we find the following passage:
"And thus did the thirty and eighth year pass away, and also the thirty and ninth, and forty and first, and the forty and second, yea, even until forty and nine years had passed away, and also the fifty and first, and the fifty and second; yea, and even until fifty and nine years had passed away." (4th Nephi verse 6)
What was the original passage like if this is Mormon's abridgment of it? I count 57 words in this verse, and what does it say? I could abridge the above passage down to six words:
"Twenty two more years passed away."
Isn't that a PUZZLE?
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Did you know there are something like 1320 occurrences of the phrase "it came to pass" in the 239 chapters of the Book of Mormon? That's roughly 5 1/2 times per chapter. Abridged? Take it easy on us man!
I remember my mother listening to a reel-to-reel recording of the entire Book of Mormon. It would drone on day after day, "and it came to pass that this," and it came to pass that that." The phrase "and it came to pass" always reminds me of my childhood.
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