One suggestion has been that when Nephi says that he had “goodly parents,” that the intended meaning was that they were wealthy—that they had many “goods.” That is not the meaning that appears in Webster’s 1828 dictionary. It is best to consider that they were simply good. They were wealthy, and that is made clear later, but Nephi is referring to their quality of goodness, not the quantity of their goods.
Nevertheless, it has also been suggested that a possible meaning for Nephi’s name suggested good, or goodness. Thus, this introduction may have been a play on words.
The goodness of his parents allowed Nephi to be “taught somewhat in all the learning of my father.” It would be an unusual child who did not learn from his or her parents, and Nephi’s mention of learning will be reiterated in the second verse. This suggests that Nephi was educated, meaning more than simple parental instruction.
It is clear that Nephi learned something of metalworking from his father, but there are also clues that he was trained to be a scribe. As a fourth son, he was not going to inherit his father’s business. The family economic position was sufficient to send him to scribal school, and much of what Nephi writes later in life depends upon what he learned in scribal school. Beyond the clear ability to read and write, Nephi’s experience with literary forms and expectations of certain types of literature will inform what we read from him in both First and Second Nephi.