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Moroni 6:2 · 3 Nephi 9:20

Textual Shared phrasing

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Book of Mormon Moroni 6:2
"Neither did they receive any unto baptism save they came forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit"
Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 9:20
"whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost"

Shared words: with a broken heart and a contrite spirit

Moroni's own chapter on baptism states the church's admission rule and grounds it in what the risen Lord had required from the darkness. Both verses make 'a broken heart and a contrite spirit' the condition of coming to baptism: the Lord requires it of the one he will 'baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost' (3 Nephi 9:20); the church requires it of any it will 'receive… unto baptism' (Moroni 6:2). Moroni 6:2 reads 'Neither did they receive any unto baptism save they came forth' (not an inverted none-did-they-receive form) -- the near-end quote is the exact opening clause of 6:2. TYPE = shared-phrasing (not paraphrase): there is a distinctive verbatim multi-word string shared, 'a broken heart and a contrite spirit', carried on both ends; the distinctive PAIRING is the binding of that phrase to the act of baptism. The SINGULAR formula 'a broken heart and a contrite spirit' occurs at exactly SIX verses (recounted 2026-08-10 at the D&C freeze) -- 2 Nephi 2:7; 3 Nephi 9:20 (TWICE in the one verse); 3 Nephi 12:19; Ether 4:15; Moroni 6:2; and D&C 59:8, 'Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit', which attaches the formula to sacrifice rather than to baptism. (Mormon 2:14 carries the PLURAL 'broken hearts and contrite spirits'; Jacob 2:10 has 'the broken heart' alone -- both correctly excluded from the singular count. Two corpus near-forms carry the pieces without the conjoined formula: Psalms 34:18 -- 'a broken heart' / 'a contrite spirit' in parallel clauses -- and Psalms 51:17, 'a broken and a contrite heart'.) Of the six singular occurrences, only 9:20 and 6:2 attach the broken heart to BAPTISM: 3 Nephi 12:19 attaches it to the fulfilled law ('the law is fulfilled'), 2 Nephi 2:7 to the atonement answering the ends of the law, Ether 4:15 to calling upon the Father. Moroni 6 is Moroni's own by position -- it opens 'And now I speak concerning baptism' (6:1) with no fresh self-attribution line, the 'I' continuing from Moroni 1:1. Related: Moroni 6:3's 'took upon them the name of Christ' is a third-person past-tense occurrence of the take-the-name idiom (register note mos-doc-take-name), distinct from the second-person 'take upon you the name of Christ' that stands at six places (2 Nephi 31:13, Mosiah 5:8, Alma 34:38, 3 Nephi 27:5, Mormon 8:38, D&C 18:21 — recounted 2026-08-10 at the D&C freeze). The 3 Nephi 11:23-28 baptism formula/authority leg is page-prose context (3ne-doc-baptism-formula-authority -- cross-linked).

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