This article is part of a series on Contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Click on the link to access a brief overview of the series. 

The Book of Mormon repeatedly states that the Nephites, during much of their history prior to the coming of Christ, observed the Law of Moses in all things (2 Nephi 5:10; 25:24; Jacob 4:5; Jarom 1:5, 11; Mosiah 2:3; Alma 25:15–16; 30:3; cf. Mosiah 12:28–37; 13:27–28; 16:15). For example, it states that in the first century BC, “they were strict in observing the ordinances of God, according to the law of Moses; for they were taught to keep the law of Moses, until it should be fulfilled” (Alma 30:3). During one short period, while the Nephites lived in great wickedness, the Lamanites strictly observed the Law of Moses (Helaman 13:1; 15:5).

One major problem for this claim is that neither the Nephites nor the Lamanites had men descended from the tribe of Levi. The Book of Mormon indicates repeatedly that the Nephites and the Lamanites descended from the Genesis patriarch Joseph (1 Nephi 5:14–16; 6:2; 2 Nephi 3:3–4; 25:21; Jacob 2:25; Alma 46:23–27; 3 Nephi 5:21–23; 10:17; 15:12; Ether 13:6–10), specifically from the tribe of Manasseh, one of Joseph’s sons (Alma 10:3).

The term Levite(s) is prominent in the Old Testament, used almost three hundred times in reference to the descendants of Jacob’s son Levi, and specifically the men from that tribe qualified to serve in the tabernacle and later in the temple (Numbers 1:47–53; 3:9–12; 8:6–26; etc.). The priesthood was to be under the administrative control of the descendants of Aaron, Moses’ brother, both of whom were of the tribe of Levi (Exodus 29:9; Numbers 3:10; see also Joshua 21:4). In the New Testament, the book of Hebrews affirms that the priesthood under the Mosaic covenant was strictly “the order of Aaron,” the exclusive province of the Levites. It even makes the point that no one from the tribe of Judah (the tribe from which Jesus descended) “has ever served at the altar” (Hebrews 7:5–13). Thus, without Levites, people of Israelite descent living in the Americas would not be able to maintain a priesthood according to the Law of Moses.

The Book of Mormon simply ignores this problem. Its only reference to the tribe of Levi is in a quotation of Malachi 3:3 (3 Nephi 24:3) in a context of the Book of Mormon having nothing to do with the people’s priesthood. Although at least two men and one city in the Book of Mormon narrative are called Aaron, the Old Testament figure of Aaron is nowhere mentioned by name (though see the indirect reference to him in 2 Nephi 3:17, again in a context not concerned with the priesthood). Yet the Book of Mormon contains 125 occurrences of the terms priest(s) and priesthood.

Mormons have struggled to explain the problem. Consider, for example, this explanation offered by a well-known LDS scholar:

From Lehi¹ to the coming of Christ, the Nephite people had the Melchizedek Priesthood. During this period they did not hold the Aaronic priesthood, inasmuch as they were not descendants of Aaron¹ and there were no Levites among them. Nonetheless, the Nephites observed the law of Moses with all its rites, rituals, and ordinances, looking “forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law [should] be fulfilled” (2 Ne. 25:24–25; 5:10). This was done by the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which embraces the right to do all that the Aaronic Priesthood can do (D&C 107:4–10).¹

Notably lacking from this explanation—which concedes that the Nephites could not hold the Levitical priesthood—is any reference to the Melchizedek Priesthood in the Book of Mormon. There is a such a reference, but it comes only centuries after the Nephite civilization began. The Book of Mormon has the idea of a high priesthood of Melchizedek revealed to the Nephites by a first-century BC prophet named Alma (Alma 13:14–18, with specific concepts and language clearly drawn from the New Testament in Hebrews 7:1–5). According to this passage, Melchizedek was simply the most outstanding individual in Old Testament history who held the “holy order of God” (Alma 13:6, 18) that was “the order of his Son” (Alma 13:1, 2, 7, cf. 13:9, 16). God’s “holy order” is mentioned without explanation only once prior to the Book of Alma (2 Nephi 6:2) and frequently in other places in Alma and Helaman (Alma 4:20; 5:44, 49, 54; 6:1, 8; 7:22; 8:4; 43:2; 49:20; Helaman 8:18). Ether 12:10–11 presents Moroni referring to the holy order in connection with the Law of Moses. Thus, nothing whatsoever is said in Alma 13 or anywhere else in the Book of Mormon to distinguish this priesthood “order” from the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood of the Law of Moses.

As it stands, then, the Book of Mormon’s claim that the Nephites strictly adhered to the Law of Moses prior to the coming of Christ is contradicted by the Old Testament’s teaching that the priesthood under the covenant made through Moses was the sole province of the Levites.