Alma 9:1-5

The Book of Mormon > Alma > Chapter 9

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Questions

Verse 1

• How did Alma view Amulek's role as his companion? Why does he speak of "tak[ing] Amulek?" Is this the language of God, or Alma's interpretation of it?

Verse 2

• What does although mean here?
• What are the people talking about here? Why are they talking about the earth passing away? Are they responding to something that Alma has said, or where does this come from?
• Are the people suggesting that real prophets only come to prophesy of big and disastrous events? But even if Alma were to do that they would't believe it unless several prophets came to say the same thing?

Verse 3

• What does Alma mean when he says that the earth should pass away? Why would he even record this little exchange with the people of Ammonihah?

Verse 4

• Why wouldn't the people of Ammonihah believe Alma?
• Why do the people say they won't believe Alma if he "shouldst prophesy that this great city should be destroyed in one day"? Was this a response to something Alma had said?
• What if we read the "if" to mean: "if you are foolish enough to prophesy that this great city could be destroyed in one day, then you are an idiot and we won't believe anything else you say?" Is this a productive reading?

Verse 5

• What does Alma mean by "hard-hearted" and "stiffnecked"? What scriptural precedences provide insight into these terms?

Lexical notes

• The although in verse 2 has confused some readers. To make sense of although here read it as even though (see the Oxford English Dictionary). Today we might say even if in place of even though. Under this interpretation the people are saying something like "do you expect us to believe something only one person tells us no matter how crazy it is?" See Mark 14:29 for another reference in the scriptures to where although is used to mean "even though" or "even if."

Exegesis

Superscription

Before this point in the Book of Alma, Mormon is the dominant author of the text. He sometimes clearly copies over without much or any editing whole swaths of his source text (in, for example, Alma 5 and Alma 7), but he is always the narrator of the story. Suddenly, with 9:1 ("I, Alma"), Mormon is replaced by Alma. Introducing this change—as well as its somewhat odd lapse—is the superscription to chapter 9.

Like the superscription to whole Book of Alma, this superscription describes what follows as being "according to the record of Alma." But whereas this phrase in the earlier superscription seems just to indicate a source, here—at least once one reads "I, Alma" in verse 1—it seems to name the actual record being included in Mormon's text. At first, then, there seems to be a difference between Mormon's two uses of "according to the record of Alma."

When examined a bit closer, however, the problem seems to disappear. The phrase "according to the record of Alma" in the superscription to chapter 9 is attached less to what is now chapter 9 than to what is now chapter 14: "And also they [Alma and Amulek] are cast into prison, and delivered by the miraculous power of God which was in them, according to the record of Alma." Though one might quibble about punctuation, which (more or less) did not appear in the original dictated manuscript, there seems to be an indication here that it is specifically the narrative of Alma 14 that is "according to the record of Alma." And in Alma 14, Mormon seems to be following the same editorial practices employed in the larger Book of Alma: not borrowed narrative voice, but authorial abridgement.

In the first part of the superscription, Mormon describes what are now chapters 9-13: "The words of Alma, and also the words of Amulek, which were declared unto the people who were in the land of Ammonihah." Here no actual source is identified, and in those chapters Mormon not only draws on his sources in order to record parts of the sermons delivered by Alma and Amulek, but he also copies over, as already mentioned, parts of Alma's own narrative telling of the event.

It is thus important to note that there is some difficulty in determining where Alma's original narrativization ends and Mormon's abridging editorial work begins. The first unmistakable indication that Mormon is the narrator is to be found in Alma 10:12, where Alma and Amulek are referred to as "them." (Mormon's role as narrator is thereafter confirmed a number of times: the obviously non-contemporary explanation of weights and measures in 11:1-20, the emphasis on "all that I have written" in 11:46 and 13:31, the "Now Alma" of Alma 12:1, etc.) The question, though, is at what point between 9:33 (the last clear instance of Alma speaking in the first person: "the Lord did not suffer them that they should take me at that time") and 10:12 (the first clear instance of Alma being mentioned in the third person: "the spirit of prophecy which was in them [Alma and Amulek]"). Does the third person reference in 10:12 suggest that Mormon is the narrator from the beginning of chapter 10? Does Mormon's "takeover" begin as early as the last verse of chapter 9? Or does Mormon perhaps simply copy over Alma's words concerning Amulek for at least a few verses into chapter 10? These are questions that deserve attention in the respective commentaries on the relevant passages.

Verse 2

Who art thou?

Some have considered Alma as returning somewhat in disguise, pointing to the moment when he tells Amulek who he is in Alma 8:23. However, this is likely mostly a carryover from the story of Abinadi, who was rejected and returned after 2 years in disguise (Mosiah 12:1). In Alma's story, the people are more likely to be saying "Who art thou?" not in sincerely asking who he is, but in asking Who are you to tell us such things? Interestingly, King Noah says something similar about Abinadi, even using his name: "Who is Abinadi, that I and my people should be judged of him, or who is the Lord, that shall bring upon my people such great affliction?" (Mosiah 11:27) The people knew who he was when he first arrived, and mocked him in his lack of judgmental authority: "And now we know that because we are not of thy church we know that thou hast no power over us; and thou hast delivered up the judgment-seat" (Alma 8:12).

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