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But completely necessary for Nephi to “make himself a king and a ruler over ” Laman and Lemuel. (1 Nephi 16:38)

All good points in the original post.

Crosses were around in 600 BC, with a quick search of the internet showing that they derived or evolved from Assyrian Impaling around 850ish BC and moved to Greece and Persia, with a reported 7th century BC mass crucifixion of pirates in Greece, and Darius being the first persian crucifier to be recorded, when he crucifed 3000 babylonians at once in the 6th century BC. Apparantly, this was written down because it was such a massive amount for one time. The Qu’ran says Moses and Joseph used terms like Crucify in speaking with Ancient Egyptians, and apparantly there is some arguement as to whether Egyptians used crucifixion or impaling.

Anyway, whether through Egypt or Babylon, it is reasonable to say Nephi and Lehi could have known of the cross. It is also possible, of course, that this is just the word Joseph used in his vocabulary to express what he was undestanding in the translation.

As for the other two, I dunno. Some members of the church would say that the Bible still contains the “fullness of the Gospel”. Personally, I guess it deoends on how you define that phrase.

The other “2″s are actually in FIRST Nephi. This little comment box took the liberty of trying to make a list, so here goes again (all in FIRST Nephi)

N 11:33 “And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross…” Were crosses common 600 BC?

N 13:24 “… and when it proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord”

N 14:25 (BoM is a “second witness”), so why not let Nephi be a “second witness” to what John saw?

I absolutely hate the Laban episode.

Around Lehi’s time there were many prophets – how does that relate to our “same organization as the primitive church” mantra?

The ‘primitive church’ comment (from the Articles of Faith) refers to the early (1 century AD) Christian Church as set up by the Savior and, subsequently, the Apostles — not to the largely apostate Kingdom of Judah under the Law of Moses (7th/6th century BC). ..bruce..