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While Nephi specifically knows that Christ will visit his descendants, it appears from 3 Nephi that this prophecy was not widely known among the Nephites as the time came for it to be fulfilled. This suggests that the small plates were not widely read among the Nephites. Mormon seems to have been surprised when he discovers them in the archives while he is selecting and compiling his abridged history. That suggests that Mormon’s predecessor historians did not cite the small plates in the works Mormon had been drawing from. It may be that much of the content in the small plates was not present in the contemporary records that Mormon had been using, making the small plates’ historical details, visions, sermons, parables, and interpretation of Isaiah uniquely precious to Mormon and Moroni. If so, this emphasizes that the intended audience for the small plates was not the Nephites, but the future readers of the Book of Mormon in modern times, especially the descendants of the Lamanites, and the Jews of the Latter Days.