Alma 5:19

Brant Gardner

In verse 14 Alma had asked: “Have ye received his image in your countenances?” In this verse he asks: “can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?” These are clearly intentionally repeated phrases. This repetition has a superficial resemblance to repetitive resumption only because of the repeated phrase. However, the intervening material is an essential part of the sermon, and not an insertion.

This means that the repetition has a different function. This function is to emphasize aspects of how one might have the image of God on our countenances. The previous verses began with the general statement that one must exercise faith in the true God of redemption, and then spoke of the problem one would have coming before that God and not having lived according to the covenants.

This repeated phrase will set off a second set of conditions, that similarly defines the conditions of those who do not fulfill their covenants. The two parallel phrases mark parallel arguments that are intended to intensify the emphasis on those traits.

There is an interesting possible cultural image in engraving the image of God on one’s countenance. In Mesoamerican non-Nephite religion, there were deity impersonators who would be the symbolic embodiment of a god by wearing that god’s mask. Thus, an available image to those familiar with Mesoamerican culture would be the image on the countenance as a representation of becoming like that deity. It would create a very powerful metaphor to a known practice for how people might become like, or appear to have the qualities of, God.

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