Alma asked fifty questions in this speech, split into 8 main groups of questions (see Figures 1, 2, 3, 4). To determine the number of questions in Alma’s speech, you cannot simply count the question marks, because sometimes there are compound questions, and because the questions marks were inserted later by the typesetter of the Book of Mormon. When the Book of Mormon was translated, Oliver
Cowdery, and whoever happened to be the scribe on some of the later parts, wrote word for word, without punctuation. The original manuscripts of the Book of Mormon had no periods, no commas, no question marks, no dashes, and hardly any capital letters; it was just a steady stream of words. One of the young men working in Grandin’s print shop punctuated the Book of Mormon, so the number of question marks is not a reliable way to count the questions.
Figure 1, 2, 3, 4 John W. Welch and Greg Welch, "50 Questions of Alma 5," in Charting the Book of Mormon, charts 62-65.
Punctuation marks are an invention of the middle ages. No ancient manuscript has any punctuation, so for example, when you look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, you would notice that they are just a steady stream of words, and the older ones do not even put spaces between the words. When we speak, we just speak in a steady line, and if you know where the words break, you can follow it. But we do not stop between each word when we speak, and so the very early writings do not even break between the words. That is enough to say that we have a little bit of flexibility in counting how many questions there are.
Why do you think he asked so many questions? How do you answer each of these questions? How can you apply his questions to your daily life?