4 But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles?...
6 Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?
10 Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written.
11 For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written.
12 For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth and they shall write it. 2 Nephi 29:3-4, 6, 10-12
The word "Bible" never appears in the Bible. Why? The word was not associated to "Scriptures" until after the books of the Bible were written.
early 14 century., from Anglo-Latin biblia, O.Fr. bible (13 century.) "the Bible," also any large book generally, from Medieval and Late Latin biblia (neuter plural interpreted as feminine singular), in phrase biblia sacra "holy books," a translation of Greek ta biblia to hagia "the holy books," from Gk. biblion "paper, scroll," the ordinary word for "book," originally a diminutive of byblos "Egyptian papyrus," possibly so called from Byblos (modern Jebeil, Lebanon), the name of the Phoenician port from which Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece (cf. parchment). Or the place name might be from the Greek word, which then would be probably of Egyptian origin. The Christian scripture was referred to in Greek as Ta Biblia as early as 223 AD. Bible replaced O.E. biblioðece (see bibliothek) as the ordinary word for "the Scriptures." Figurative sense of "any authoritative book" is from 1804. (Key dates in BOLD)www.http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=bible&searchmode=none
Why would we need another Bible, as Nephi presupposes people will say? Nephi claims that the two nations (Jewish and American) are really one and that God created both, so the Bibles are essentially the same (2 Nephi 29:7). He goes on to say the testimony of two nations confirms the existence of God more than one (2 Nephi 29:8). And God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow so can't He speak to both (2 Nephi 29:9).
There's one problem...the Book of Mormon is a fabrication, so that argument does not hold up, as seen in its anarchronistic way it uses words out of their time frame.
That argument brings up more questions:
- Was God unable to convey all the information he needed through one nation and the appearance of Jesus Christ? Did he need a supplement book to verify everything that fell short?
- Why did God need another nation to fulfill his purpose and why didn't he convey information about a second nation to Moses or Jesus? For the Jew, it was always about Israel where the temple was built and God set up his address. God did not have two addresses and two homes. Only one nation/one home/one temple.
- Why would God have two messages for two tribes? Isn't his eternal word good enough for all nations and all tribes through all of time?