1 Nephi 5:8 and Acts 12:11

1 Nephi 5:8 and Acts 12:11

Stephen Jesus God MormonThe first part of 1 Nephi 5:8 uses some of Peter’s words recorded in Acts 12:11, which, being in the New Testament, was unavailable to the Nephites, who left Jerusalem six centuries before Christ’s birth.

Though the stories are quite different, some of the same expressions are used. But these are common Old Testament idioms and should not be suspect. For example, in Genesis 15:13, one finds the words “know of a surety,” while variants are found in 1 Samuel 28:2 and Ecclesiastes 8:12 (cf. also John 17:8). The expression “deliver out of the hand(s) of” is found 77 times in the Old Testament, while in nine instances the same Hebrew expression is rendered “deliver from the hand(s) of.”