The Book of Mormon teaches that the Nephites were devout Jews who kept the law of Moses (2 Nephi 11:45), yet there is no mention of the Passover. The importance of the Passover to the Jewish people cannot be over-emphasized. If the Nephites were devout Jews they would have celebrated this event hundreds of times during their 1,000 year history in America, yet there isn’t one mention of it being observed. In contrast, the Passover is mentioned over seventy-five times in the Bible.
Important Jewish feasts recorded in the Bible include the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, and the Feast of Tabernacles. These religious ceremonies were of utmost importance and it is inconceivable that in a book purporting to be a history of Jewish people they are not mentioned even once. The same thing is true of the Jewish offerings as pointed out by Jerald and Sandra Tanner:
“In the King James Version of the Old Testament we find the following: trespass offerings, meat offerings, drink offerings, wave offerings and peace offerings (see Exodus, chapter 29; Leviticus, chapters 2-5; Numbers, chapter 29; Chronicles, chapter 29). The computer showed that these offerings were mentioned 519 times in the Bible. On the other hand the Book of Mormon, does not have a single place where any of these important offerings are mentioned!” (Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Salt Lake City Messenger, Feb. 1990, p. 11.)
The Bible teaches that the tribe of Levi was an integral part of the Law of Moses. There are two unalterable facts concerning the Law of Moses:
- Only the tribe of Levi was permitted to function in all aspects of tabernacle/temple worship
- Only Levites who were direct descendants of Aaron could serve as priest or high priest (2 Chr 35:14, Exo 28:39-43, 29:1-45, 31:10).
To disobey these divine instructions meant certain death. The Lord, speaking to Aaron, declared:
“I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to do the work at the Tent of Meeting [later the temple], but only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain…anyone else who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.” (Num 18:6–7)
In the Biblical account of the Northern and Southern kingdoms, Jeroboam, king over the ten northern tribes, perverted God’s commandment concerning the priestly tribe of Levi, by appointing priests from other tribes and consequently he lost his kingdom:
“Even after this Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from ‘all sorts of people.’ Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated…this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.” (1 Ki 13:33–34) [emphasis added]
In the Book of Mormon the Nephites committed the same sin as Jeroboam. They were supposedly devout Jews, who, 600 years before Christ, came to the Americas and built a temple like Solomon’s in order to keep the Law of Moses. They appointed priests and high priests from the tribe of Joseph to perform the temple work. One reads in Jacob 1:18, “For I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph had been consecrated priests…of this people by the hand of Nephi.” Neither Jacob nor Joseph descended from the tribe of Levi. Both were from the tribe of Joseph. In fact there was not one Nephite in the Book of Mormon who belonged to the tribe of Levi. They all descended from the tribe of Joseph. (See Mosiah 9:2, 11:17; 1 Nephi 1:164–165; Alma 3:3, 11:6) (LDS Mosiah 17:2, 23:16; 1 Nephi 6:14; Alma 5:3, 16:5)
The Nephite priesthood described in the Book of Mormon violates God’s clear commandment concerning the consecrating of priests. Their illegitimate priesthood only serves to underscore the fact that the Nephites could not have been devout Jews.