Mormon lays out the reasons for Alma’s visit to the Zoramites. The detail of the nature of the apostasy of the Zoramites in these verses suggests that there was quite a bit more information in Alma’s original record and that from that larger body of information Mormon is giving us this highly abbreviated account.
What we learn is just as much about Mormon’s expectations as we do about the particulars of Zoramite apostasy. In particular, we have the distinction made between the information in verse 9 and that of verses 10 and 11. In verse 9, Mormon notes that “they had fallen into great errors” with the first of these being the rejection of the law of Moses. This is a serious problem for the Nephites because it indicates a greater degree of apostasy than we have seen in most of the groups we have seen depart from the standard Nephite religion. The Nehors apparently retain much of the Law of Moses, but rejected Christ. This is the basic form of the apostasy we saw among the people of Noah, and more recently in Ammonihah. The Zoramites, however, have gone further, and rejected the law of Moses.
What is interesting beyond this statement of the rejection of the law of Moses is the way that Mormon makes a separation between the Zoramite disbelief in the law of Moses and the remaining catalogue of their transgressions. In verses 10 and 11 we are led to believe that these transgressions are for elements of the Nephite religion that are in addition to the law of Moses. The only one specifically mentioned is daily prayer. While prayer was certainly part of the law of Moses, it becomes a greater emphasis in the Nephite religion that understands so much of the Atoning Messiah.
Mormon is writing his text long after the Nephites had received the visit of the Savior, and transformed the law of Moses into the law of Christ. As in the Old World, that transition resulted in the abandonment of many of the particular performances of the law of Moses. For Mormon, the Zoramite abandonment of the Mosaic law was a problem because it was the law they should have been under, but it was a law that Mormon had also “abandoned” due to the fulfillment of the law by Christ. For Mormon there were laws that transcended the law of Moses, and verses 10 and 11 are intended to highlight the rather complete apostasy of the Zoramites. Not only did they abandon the law of Moses, but they abandoned the other performances that survived the law of Moses into the law of Christ.