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Mosiah 18:10 · 2 Nephi 31:14

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Book of Mormon Mosiah 18:10
"being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments"
Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 31:14
"witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water"

Witness-language joined to the act of baptism occurs in the record at five sites: 2 Nephi 31 (31:7, 31:13, 31:14), the Mosiah baptisms (18:10; deferred case 21:35), Alma 7:15 ('witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism'), 3 Nephi 7:25 (baptism 'as a witness and a testimony before God… that they had repented'), and Moroni 6:2 (those received unto baptism 'witnessed unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins'). Corpus-wide the frozen texts add three joinings: Moses 7:11, Acts 1:22, John 3:26. The bare phrase 'as a witness' also occurs at Alma 14:11 and Helaman 8:24 in non-baptismal senses, and is an Old Testament idiom - e.g. Deuteronomy 31:21, where the song 'shall testify against them as a witness'. Difference carried as page prose, not harmonized: 2 Ne 31 witnesses willingness and calls baptism the gate (31:17); Mosiah 18:10/18:13 are perfect-tense - the water witnesses a covenant already entered.

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