Abstract: The book of Enos is considered to be a short, one-chapter treatise on prayer, yet it is more. Close examination of its text reveals it to be a text structurally centered on Christ and the divine covenant. Enos seeks and obtains from Him a covenant to preserve the records of the Nephites for the salvation of the Lamanites. Enos prays not only for his own remission of sins but also for the salvation both of his own people, the Nephites, and also of the Lamanites. He yearns in faith that the Lord will preserve the records of his people for the benefit of the Lamanites. This article outlines a possible overall chiastic structure of vv. 3–27 as well as a centrally situated smaller chiasm of vv. 15–16a, which focus on Christ and His covenant with Enos. The voice of the Lord speaks to the mind of Enos seven times, and the proposed chiastic structure of the text is meaningfully related to those seven divine communications. We have the Book of Mormon in our day because of the faithful prayers and faithful labors of prophets like Enos and because of the promises they received from Christ, whose covenant to preserve the records is made the focal point at the center of the Enos text.

Enos, like his uncle Nephi, manifestly desired to highlight in his writings his yearning that the written word of the Lord bless God’s children. Nephi earlier had written that he knew that the Lord God would consecrate his own prayers for the gain of his people and that the words which he had written in weakness would be made strong unto them, persuading them to do good (2 Nephi 33:4).

We usually pay due attention to Enos’s description of his struggle in prayer, by which he sought and obtained a remission of his sins (Enos 1:3–8). When we think of the book of Enos, our first impression generally is that it is a treatise on prayer. And in that we are correct. The book is a book about prayer, yes, but prayer that seeks more than Enos’s [Page 244]own personal redemption. He first writes that he intends to tell of the “wrestle” he had “before God” before he received a remission of his sins (v. 2). But by v. 8 he has received forgiveness. So why vv. 9–27? We should note that the Lord’s statements to him — “Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee; … thou shalt be blessed; … go to, thy faith hath made thee whole” (vv. 5, 8) — constitute the first of seven divine communications from the Lord into his mind. The first communication is a twofold response (in vv. 5 and 8, which answer Enos’s prayer and supplication for his own personal redemption (vv. 3–8). The second responds to his struggle in prayer for the redemption of the Nephites (vv. 9–10). And the third answers his prayer — and responds to his and his own people’s toils — for redemption of the Lamanites and the preservation of the Nephite record for their benefit (vv. 11–14). The central communication from the Lord states the Lord’s covenant with Enos that the Nephite records will be preserved for the benefit of the Lamanites (vv. 15–16a). The book is structured on three prayers uttered by Enos: for his own redemption, for the redemption of the Nephites, and for redemption of the Lamanites. Quoted seven times in the book, the Lord answers Enos’s prayers (vv. 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 27) and covenants to preserve the Nephite records (v. 16).

After introductory verses 1 and 2, Enos apparently structured vv. 3–27 of his text on the three accounts of the Lord’s voice to his mind: (1) the Lord’s answer to his own struggle in prayer for his own personal redemption (vv. 3–8 and 25–27, respectively, at the beginning and end of the book); (2) the Lord’s answer to his struggle in prayer on behalf of the Nephites (vv. 9–10 and 21–24, found in text just following the beginning and just before the end of the book); (3) the Lord’s promised fulfillment of Enos’s hope for the redemption of the Lamanites by the preservation of the Nephites’ writings (vv. 11–14 and vv. 16b–20,