Redaction: Mormon makes an editorial decision to stop recording Alma’s further preaching. He does not indicate whether Alma’s sermon continued on this occasion, or whether he referred to sermons on later occasions. Presumably, if Alma preached to different groups of Ammonihahites, he would have given them a similar message; perhaps Mormon didn’t include other sermons because they substantially repeated the information in this discourse.
As I read this passage, it seems that this particular discourse not only provides doctrinal information that Mormon would value but the confrontation with Zeezrom also leads directly to the next narrative section. Therefore, Mormon selected these particular sermons for their connection with Zeezrom’s story as much as for their doctrine, suggesting that we should pay attention to that story.
Certainly Alma would have felt some kinship with Zeezrom, for Zeezrom the opponent of the Nephite religion will become Zeezrom its defender, a transformation with which Alma was intimately familiar.
Variant: The printer’s manuscript and the 1830 edition begin this verse with: “And it came to pass that Alma.… ”
Text: There is no chapter break here in the 1830 edition. For Mormon, this sermon continues the context of Zeezrom’s conversion. Alma has just issued a call to repentance, and Zeezrom needs to repent. Mormon’s inclusion of this call introduces Zeezrom’s repentance. Mormon made no break here because the story was now moving to what he saw as its logical climax.