Rhetorical: Alma begins his discourse with an interesting ploy. He does two things, he includes them in a particular tradition, and then tells them that they have forgotten that tradition. In particular, he is equating the “traditions of your fathers” with the commandments of God.
What Alma is going to do is begin with the authority of Nephi back to Lehi the progenitor. After he declares this particular lineage-as-authority, he will link the commandments of God to that tradition. This is an important technique that we should understand in is social context.
We must remember that the lineage of Lehi underwent a fission very early in the history of the Nephites. After that fission, the Nephites established a completely new colony in the Land of Nephi. As interpreted in this commentary, that community included peoples who were not related to Lehi, and the development of the community brought them into contact with yet others who were not descendants of Lehi. This complex development led to a politico-religious schism which has Mosiah fleeing with those who remained loyal to the religion of Nephi. These remaining religious Nephites find their way to Zarahemla.
In Zarahemla they enter an established city whose inhabitants outnumber them. However, they are able to exercise some type of right of rulership, and become the ruling lineage of Zarahemla, instituting their form of worship among the Zarahemlaites. These Zarahemlaites had been Hebrews a couple of hundred years earlier, but in the meantime had lost their language, culture, and their God. They had become Mesoamericanized, and their acceptance of the Nephites must have caused some religious difficulties even as they apparently willingly submitted to them.
These tensions between old and new religion erupted into internal contentions, the results of which we see in the sermon of Benjamin as he tries to heal the rift in his community. In spite of Benjamin’s efforts, however, some type of external pressure continues to influence the development of politico-religious ideas in Zarahemla and the surrounding lands. One of those competing philosophies is the order of Nehor, which we find rampant in Ammonihah.
With this background we can appreciate some of Alma’s rhetorical tactics. By appealing to Lehi, Alma is appealing to what has become to be seen as the legitimate line of rulers – at least for the period prior to the reign of the judges if not thereafter. Thus Alma begins by an appeal to authority – the authority that allowed Mosiah to rule over a people he had almost literally stumbled into.
This appeal to authority is done in a powerful way, for Alma indicates that these are their fathers. Thus Alma is including the Ammonihahites in the tradition, and places them in a position where the should be “Nephites” – politically and religiously. It is only after he begins with this tactic of including them in a tradition of the fathers that ought to define them that he declares that they have left that tradition. Thus, even though they have not recognized Alma’s authority, Alma invokes an authority and a tradition that they must recognize, since they are a people that is under the political hegemony that is termed Nephite.