When Jesus first appeared to the Nephites, they "wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them" (3 Nephi 11:8). According to John Welch, this confusion was only removed as Jesus stretched forth his hands and identified himself as "Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world" (3 Nephi 11:10). Here we have another instance of a place where the Nephites would have recognized, quite probably, the way in which some old aspect of their beliefs had now become fulfilled and new in the visitation of Christ. It is found in Zechariah, a prophet who lived and worked shortly after the time of Lehi in Israel, that we read, "they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." (Zechariah 13:6) The identification by marks on the hand was also something that early Christians understood. For example, in the "Odes of Solomon," one of the earliest sets of hymns that were used by the Syriac saints in Damascus, we read from the words of one of their texts, "I extended my hands and approached my Lord, for the expansion of my hands is his sign." [John W. Welch, "Christ at the Nephite Temple," in Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 4, p. 133]
3 Nephi 11:9 He stretched forth his hand . . . saying: Behold, I am Jesus Christ ([Illustration]): The Book of Mormon Testifies of Jesus Christ. Artist: Greg Olsen [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Ensign, April 1997, pp. 4-5, also back cover]
[3 Nephi 11:10]: Behold, I Am Jesus Christ:
Kent Brown notes that an important and rather common legal function in the ancient world was that of one person sending an envoy or representative to recover a third person who has been enslaved in a distant place. In all such cases, the agent had to bear credentials from the sender in order to prove who he was and whom he represented. The reasons were twofold. First, the captor had to be convinced that the agent had authority to negotiate the release of the one held captive. Second, the captive too had to be reassured that the agent represented the person who was seeking the release, particularly if the agent was not known to the captive. Hence, we see the need for an agent to bear credentials which prove that he or she is an authorized representative of the one seeking the release of the captive. For example, the opening of the Exodus account brims with the legal essentials required in cases wherein one seeks the release of another. In that instance, it was the Lord who sought the release of the children of Israel through his agent Moses.
Significantly, in the case of Christ's visit to a distant branch of the house of Israel, the credentials of the resurrected Jesus included a name, the same name that the Lord's envoy, Moses, carried from the holy mount into the Hebrew slave camps. It was the name I AM. Please notice the words with which Jesus began his visit in the New World: 'Behold, I Am Jesus Christ" (3 Nephi 11:10).
Moreover, Jesus was the envoy or representative who came not only in his own name, but that of the Father (3 Nephi 11:7). But one might say, Who was the captor? According to the text, the reason for Christ's visit to the Nephites was to rescue his people from both Satan (see 3 Nephi 9:2) and their own sinful state (3 Nephi 20:26). But what, we may ask, did he bring as his credentials? We need not look far. He bore the proofs of his rescue mission in his own body. One need only repeat his words of invitation to the spellbound crowd who had gathered at the temple in Bountiful on the first day of his visit: "Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet" (3 Nephi 11:14). [S. Kent Brown, "Moses and Jesus: The Old Adorns the New," in From Jerusalem to Zarahemla: Literary and Historical Studies of the Book of Mormon, pp. 162-164]
3 Nephi 11:10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world ([Illustration]): Jesus Christ Visits the Americas. Artist: John Scott [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Ensign, March 1986, p. 2] [See also The Ensign, January 1997, pp. 4-5]