Text: There is no chapter break at this point in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon and, as already noted, the printer added paragraphing during the typesetting phase. Is this a natural break in the text?
To answer this question, we need the next couple of verses from chapter 2:
And it came to pass in the commencement of the fifth year of their reign there began to be a contention among the people; for a certain man, being called Amlici, he being a very cunning man, yea, a wise man as to the wisdom of the world, he being after the order of the man that slew Gideon by the sword, who was executed according to the law—
Now this Amlici had, by his cunning, drawn away much people after him; even so much that they began to be very powerful; and they began to endeavor to establish Amlici to be a king over the people. (Alma 2:1–2)
Mormon traditionally uses “and it came to pass” as a transition from one topic to the next, whether it begins a new subject or concludes the previous subject. (See 1 Nephi, Part 1: Context, Chapter 5, “The Organization of the Plates.”) In this case, Alma 2:1, which begins with “and it came to pass,” serves as an introductory transition. He reinforces it with a calendar reference: the fifth year of the reign of the judges.
Our chapter division may not give us the picture of Mormon’s larger editorial design, but it does depict his division of topics. Mormon is building his narrative with a series of contrasts between church church-men and non-church-men. He has just praised church-men and now (in Alma 2) will describe the effect of the non-church-men on Zarahemlaite society. Alma 1:33 ends with a statement of peace. Mormon has paired peace/conflict before in constructing his narrative, and he is using that same technique here. He describes the peaceful society established under Nephite rule (which is equivalent to saying “under the gospel”), then contrasts it with the competition and contention fomented by non-gospel beliefs.