When Alma and Amulek are joined together as a missionary team, they demonstrate powers that were not ascribed to Alma alone. Perhaps this is a reflection of differing circumstances, that Alma might have been able to free himself from dungeons without Amulek. This is not told. What we are told is that this occurs after they have been linked together. Just as in the story of the meeting of Alma and Amulek, the Lord clearly intended that these two preach together, and the Lord had a mission that may have exceeded the abilities of either man alone.
Textual: This is the end of a chapter in the 1830 edition. This chapter not only indicates the structural method of Mormon’s editing, but also the frustrating difficulty in using Mormon as a source of history. In verse 31 we have the fascinating synopsis of what must have been several events. It is rather unlikely that Mormon’s assertion that “they could not be confined in dungeons” was only his speculation. Likewise, there appears to be at least one historical event behind the statement that “neither was it possible that any man could slay them.”
We cannot approach Mormon as an editor with the presumption that he was interested in history. Mormon’s historical interests were nothing more than a frame for his overriding interest, which was the evidence of God through time, and the clarification of his doctrine. To this end, Mormon’s “histories” continue to be skeletal structures that are the bones onto which his flesh of copied discourse is supported. Mormon never tells us why he abridges history and not discourse, but it is an easy speculation that his reverence for the words of these righteous men was sufficient that he did not believe himself worthy of capable of alteration or abridgement.