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Gospel Wiki Connections 3ne-kb-become-little-child

Mosiah 3:18 · 3 Nephi 11:37

Textual Shared phrasing

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Book of Mormon Mosiah 3:18
"except they humble themselves and become as little children"
Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 11:37
"ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name"

Shared words: and become as

The exhortation to become as a little child occurs at exactly three verses in the record: Mosiah 3:18 and 3 Nephi 11:37, 11:38; corpus-wide the frozen Matthew 18:3 ('become as little children') is a fourth. The number differs, reported as fact: the angel's words Benjamin relays run PLURAL ('become as little children'); the risen Lord's baptismal charge at Bountiful runs SINGULAR ('become as a little child,' identically at 11:37 and 11:38). A fourth, closely related occurrence stands at 3 Nephi 9:22 (the divine voice from the darkness): 'whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive' - the same 'little child' figure but framed 'cometh unto me as' rather than 'become as'. The adjacent Mosiah 3:19 ('becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble') is the near neighbor in the angel's own discourse but drops the word 'little' (its natural-man doctrine is hosted on atonement.md). In 3 Nephi the Lord binds the figure, as the angel's relayed words did not, to repentance and baptism (11:37-38). Whether the Lord is citing Benjamin's discourse or drawing on a shared idiom the text does not say; only the shared phrase is reported.

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King Benjamin