Brant Gardner notes that "the Zoramites had built synagogues" (Alma 31:12), yet we have just been told that they do not follow the law of Moses. This suggests that their places of worship had to be designed for a different function, and a different religion. They could not have been Jewish synagogues, not only because of time and distance from the Old World, but because they did not follow the religion that we attach to the concept of a synagogue. Clearly, this term is being used more generically. Since the Greek origin of the term is a place for meeting together, we may suppose that whatever term was on the plates also conveyed the meaning of a religious meeting place, and it is in that context and meaning that we have synagogues among the Zoramites. [Brant Gardner, Book of Mormon Commentary, [http://www.highfiber.com/] ~nahualli/LDStopics/Alma/Alma31.htm, p. 8]