Textual: This is a continuation of the paragraph from our current chapter 12. The recombined paragraph would be:
(37) And now, my brethren, seeing we know these things, and they are true, let us repent, and harden not our hearts, that we provoke not the Lord our God to pull down his wrath upon us in these his second commandments which he has given unto us; but let us enter into the rest of God, which is prepared according to his word. (1) And again, my brethren, I would cite your minds forward to the time when the Lord God gave these commandments unto his children; and I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people.
This is a rather rough transition, and it is quite probable that the rules of English require a second paragraph. There is nothing that his gained from seeing this as an entire paragraph. However, it is still essential to understand chapter 13 as a continuation of chapter 12. This is still the discourse of Alma, and he does make a conceptual shift in topics at this point.
Rhetorical: In Alma 12:37 Alma called for repentance. He calls for repentance again in Alma 13:13-14 and Alma 13:27-30. Very clearly the call for repentance is the major theme of the discourse. What we have, then, is three gross themes that are woven together. The overarching theme is that of repentance. This is the backbone that holds the purpose of his sermon in focus.
The first subtheme is the concept of spiritual death. This concept is used in the first section of the discourse to set up the reason for repentance. The people must repent so that this second death will not apply to them. The next subtheme deals with priesthood. Alma 13 spends a great deal of time on the priesthood associated with Melchizedek. What is the function of this concentration on priesthood in the middle of a discourse that calls for repentance?
Alma is in direct conflict with the established "priesthood" of the Ammonihahites. They have their functional priests, and they are most likely the same people as the lawyers. Once again we must remember that the lawyers of the New Testament are the scribes, and that it is the religious law in which they are specialists. Even more so in the New World, they would be specialists in religious law, because there was not as much of a distinction between secular and religious law as there was in New Testament times when Jerusalem was under Roman law, which was necessarily different from Biblical Law.
This when Alma is facing the people who need to repent, one of the important facets of his presentation is the declaration of authority. He is not simply discussing theology, he is discussing the ability of a priest to effect a cleansing of the penitent. Thus it is appropriate for Alma to discuss priesthood, and to do so by declaring his connection to a priesthood claimed in ancient documents. As we will remember, it was the ability to refer to documents that appears to have allowed Mosiah to have political dominance when he entered Zarahemla.
The ancient world provides its context for rights by appeal to the recognized foundations. In Mesoamerica, political legitimacy was typically demonstrated by appeal to well known source of legitimacy, the city of Tula. The Cakchiquel trace their lineage directly to Tula (written Tulan in their records - see Annals of the Cakchiquels. University of Oklahoma Press, 1974, pp. 43-49). The Popol Vuh has a similar origin for the Quiche (Popol Vuh. Simon and Schuster, 1985, pp. 171-174).
It is in this context that we should see Alma's appeal to Melchizedek. Alma is claiming authority through ancient sources, and therefore a priority over the lawyers of Ammonihah. He is unable to claim his legitimacy solely through Zarahemla, for Ammonihah's dependence upon Zarahemla is currently shaky. He must therefore claim a context that is older, and much more religiously powerful. Even though Ammonihah may have accepted the order of Nehor, they were still Nephite, and would have had access to the stories from the brass plates, and would therefore have a reverence for the name of Melchizedek. In Alma's appeal to authority he provides a stronger context for his appeal for repentance.
Translation: We have a slightly unusual construction for modern English in this verse: "I would cite your minds forward to the time when the Lord God gave these commandments…" This phrase appears to combine elements of a future ("forward") with elements of the past ("gave"). In this case, the citing forward has the meaning of "earlier." It is unclear where Joseph came up with this particular construction. It may have been part of the plate language, as that particular usage for "forward" is not clear from the 1828 Webster's dictionary, which appears to place "forward" in the future.