Amulek begins his address to the people by reciting his genealogy. He does that to place himself in the “proper” position before the community. As he makes explicit in the following verse, he is “a man of no small reputation.” The opening genealogy is designed to bolster that assertion. Amulek traces his lineage through a known illustrious ancestor (Aminadi) and then to the most illustrious of all, Nephi and Lehi. What we must only assume is that this lineage gave Amulek some position of prominence in the community. The pre-eminence of his lineage may have been one of the things that gave him his particular place in the community.
We hear nothing more about Aminadi in the Book of Mormon. The story of God writing on a wall must have had some importance for the people who were involved, but it is not listed in our text. It is also not clear how far back in time we must go for a link to Aminadi. It is possible that this story falls into the generation prior to the flight to Zarahemla, and that Aminadi was a prophet (assumed because of his role in reading a message from God) during the time the Nephites were in the Land of Nephi. This would place his story in the large plates, rather than the small plates. Since the small plates were kept by Jacob’s line, the deeds of that lineage would not show up on the small plates.
Textual: The story of Aminadi is clearly parallel to Daniel 5:5-17 although there is no language dependency. The theme of someone interpreting writing on the wall that was written by God (implied in the Daniel story) is parallel even if the other details are not. Just as the experience of Alma was similar, but different, from that of Paul, it is probable that there is a context here that is again similar yet different.