As Abinadi stands condemned to death, he declares that he will not retract his words. In this case, we have a return to the words that he spoke in prophecy about Noah. When he came among the people, he had predicted that Noah’s life would be as a garment in a hot furnace, as recorded in Mosiah 12:3. Now he points his accusation directly at Noah, telling him that Noah himself will be under condemnation if Abinadi is executed.
Perhaps because of the experience that Noah had witnessed, where Abinadi had been divinely protected during his trial, he appears to believe that Abinadi really could condemn him. Although he wavered and might have released him, the priests turn the tide and persuade the king that Abinadi must die. Although the official reason to put Abinadi to death was blasphemy, the real reason was that “he has reviled the king.” That was the reason the people brought Abinadi before the king, and it is the convincing argument to continue with the execution that was based on an entirely different legal justification.
The long discourse on the Messiah may have come from Alma’s record, but this part must have come from the record which Noah’s scribe kept. Note the difference in what was important to record. Alma kept the important speech that declared the coming Messiah, but the court record only deals with the issue of Abinadi’s opposition to the king. The only quotation from Abinadi here is the one that reiterates his initial prophecy against the king. Not only is the record different, but the type of information that the two plausible accounts recorded is also quite different.