Lehi was a descendant of Manasseh (son of Joseph) living in Jerusalem among the Jews.  He had lived there "all his days."  (1 Nephi 1:4).  Why?  His predecessors should have been living in the northern kingdom of Israel, and have been carried away captive to Assyria in 721 B.C,

Lehi was born about 643 B.C., which would be the same year that Judah's king, Manasseh (not Joseph's son), died.  Manasseh had a 55-year reign and filled Jerusalem with blood.  (2 Kings 21:16)  The worship of Jehovah had a difficult time during Manasseh's reign.  The worship of Jehovah was prohibited, its priests were put down, and all copies of the scriptures were destroyed.

All but one.

Some priest, seeing what was happening to religion, took a copy of the law and hid it behind some masonry in the temple.  During Josiah's reign, when Lehi was about 20 years old, the book was discovered.  King Josiah used the book to briefly bring Judah back to the worship of Jehovah during the time that Lehi was raising his family.

The scriptures had a difficult time surviving back in those days.  Copies were limited since they had to be produced by hand, word by word.  The only way one could study the scriptures was to go to the synagogue and hear them read by the priests.

Lehi was born in Jerusalem because of an ancestor's move 300 years before.  Lehi's ancestors were of the tribe of Manasseh, living in the northern kingdom of Israel.  Jehovah worship had a hard time there, too.  Israel was ruled by one wicked, idolatrous king after another--Jeroboam, Baasha, Zimri and others, and then Ahab, the worst of all.

During this time the kingdom of Judah was ruled by the good king, Asa.  Asa put down idol worship, and even courageously deposed his own mother from being queen because she promoted idol worship.  The kingdom of Judah prospered, while the kingdom of Israel languished.  The righteous people in Israel saw what was happening in Judah and moved there.

And Asa "took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin ... and renewed the altar of the Lord ... And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon:  for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him."  (2 Chronicles 15:8-9).

Lehi's ancestors likely came to Jerusalem at this time, about 940 B.C., 300 years before Lehi's birth.

Significantly, Laban's ancestors probably came to Jerusalem then, too.  It was his ancestors who had the keeping of the brass plates.  Those ancestors, unlike Laban, were righteous, and took their responsibility seriously.  They zealously protected that sacred copy of the scriptures, possibly not even letting its existence be known.  I suspect that Lehi only knew of the plates' existence because the Lord told him about them.  The Lord knew that Jerusalem would be destroyed, and the plates, too.  Laban was an unworthy caretaker.  The Lord wanted the plates to be where they would be safe and be useful.  He gave Laban two chances to peaceably put the plates into righteous hands, and then took them out of his unrighteous care at the cost of his life.

What was the origin of those plates?

What do we know about them?

1. They were bigger than, and contained more information than, the Bible.  (1 Nephi 13:23).
2. They were written in Egyptian.  Lehi, therefore, knew how to read them and taught his sons (Nephi, at least) how to read them, too.
3. They contained the five books of Moses, and an account of Adam and Eve.  (1 Nephi 5:11)
4. They contained the writings of the prophets "from the beginning," which probably means from the beginning of the House of Israel.  (1 Nephi 5:12).
5. They contained the writings of Joseph, Isaiah, Zenock, Zenos, Neum, and some of the prophecies of Jeremiah.  (1 Nephi 5:13).
6. They contained a record of Lehi's ancestry.  (1 Nephi 5:14).

The fact that they were written in Egyptian probably places the plates' origins around or after the time of Abraham.  Abraham spent some time in Egypt teaching the Egyptians.  The hieroglyphs in the book of Abraham are evidence that he learned the Egyptian language.  Abraham was in possession of the records handed down by the fathers, but those were not the brass plates.  Those more ancient records were begun by Adam, handed down to Noah and Shem, were carried aboard the ark, and would have been written in the Adamic tongue.  The Urim and Thummim would have been required for Abraham to have been able to read them.

Isaac and Jacob probably didn't know Egyptian, but Joseph was fluent in the language.  It wouldn't surprise me to learn that he was the one who made and began the brass plates.  We know that he did some voluminous writing; and being in authority as he was, I can see him ordering some Egyptian workmen to make this brass book for him.

One of the papyrus rolls that came into the hands of Joseph Smith was the writings of Joseph of Egypt.  It was big.  At some point we will be given those writings, either from the papyrus (which the Church may still have) or from the brass plates which the Lord would have to deliver to our prophet.

As Joseph prepared to die, he gave instructions that his body should be embalmed, put in a coffin, and not be buried.  He prophesied that God would raise up a prophet named Moses who would lead the children of Israel back to the land that God gave to Abraham.  He instructed them to keep his body until then and to take it with them during the exodus, and to bury him with his father.  (JST, Genesis 50:24-38).

Joseph would have given that assignment to the descendants of his eldest son, Manasseh.  The assignment probably went to the family of Manasseh's son, Machir, whose children "were brought up upon Joseph's knees."  (Genesis 50:23).  That same family or individual would also have been given the keeping of Joseph's writings, as well as the keeping of Joseph's coffin.

Joseph's body accompanied the exodus.  Presumably the records did, too, in the care of Manasseh's family.  They faithfully carried out the assignment which would have gone from father to son for many generations.  Scribes and prophets continued to write on the plates.  Someone added the five books of Moses.  Zenos, Zenock, and Neum either wrote thereon, or their words were added.  They were apparently prophets serving in the northern kingdom of Israel before the plates were carried to Jerusalem.  That is why those prophets aren't mentioned in the Bible.  The biblical writers knew nothing about them.

The writings of Isaiah are on the plates.  Isaiah served in Judah, and was there during king Manasseh's wicked reign.  Tradition says that Manasseh had Isaiah "sawn asunder."

Someone was allowed to continue writing on the brass plates even while they were in the possession of Laban or his predecessor.  This is so because some of the prophecies of Jeremiah were recorded thereon.  I rather doubt that Laban would have allowed that.  I suspect that it was done under the supervision of Laban's father, and that Laban hadn't had the keeping of the plates very long before Nephi obtained them.

The preservation of the plates and of Lehi's family are miraculous.  Both would have been destroyed in the Babylonian invasion.  Lehi and the plates and Lehi's children got out of Jerusalem just in time.  It was destroyed 13 years after his departure.  Lehi left relatives behind.  He expressed gratitude that he had not been destroyed "with his brethren."  (1 Nephi 5:4).  Did his use of the word brethren refer to his contemporaries, or to his actual brothers?  He surely had siblings (and possibly even living parents) who were unbelievers and who were left behind and killed by the Babylonians.

I am grateful that Lehi listened and obeyed.  I am grateful for Nephi's courage and faithfulness.  I am grateful for the preservation of the brass plates which enabled the thousand-year faithfulness of the Nephites who were then able to produce the Book of Mormon.

I look forward to being given access to the records which are the brass plates and the other two-thirds of the golden plates which are in the keeping of Moroni.  How I hunger for that greater knowledge.  At this time I am on my one hundredth reading of the Book of Mormon.  I love it.  It has shaped me.  It has made my family.  It is a small book compared to those other two.  I want them, but when I prayed about it, the Spirit said to me, "You have enough."  I am satisfied, but I know the day will come when I will read the brass plates and the gold plates in their entirety.