Alma had begun his mission to the Zoramites with an explanation of why he was attempting a religious solution: “And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God” (Alma 31:5). That attempt failed. Mormon describes Alma’s profound sadness at this failure in verse 15: “Having been to declare the word, or sent to declare the word, among all the people in every city; and seeing that the hearts of the people began to wax hard, and that they began to be offended because of the strictness of the word, his heart was exceedingly sorrowful.”
As a result, Alma gathered his sons to give “every one his charge” (v. 16). As with Lehi (2 Ne. 1–4), this father believes that he will soon leave mortality. And in fact, within a year, Alma leaves “as if to go into the land of Melek. And it came to pass that he was never heard of more; as to his death or burial we know not of.” (Alma 45:2, 18; dates this event to the nineteenth year of the reign of the judges.)
Culture: Possibly Alma’s instructions to his sons may have been part of a Passover celebration which traditionally has a father instructing his sons and answering their questions. Although this practice can be most reliably traced to the time of Christ, it probably has earlier roots. Not only does the formality of the instruction period parallel Alma’s presentation, but some of his themes deal with traditional Passover questions. However, although this possibility is intriguing, the ambiguous dating of the practice and the long separation of the Nephites urge caution.
Text: Mormon has intentionally interrupted his historical narrative to insert Alma’s charge to his sons and explicitly reminds his reader, in Alma 43:3, that “now I return to an account of the wars… in the eighteenth year of the reign of the judges.” Why, then, did he not simply put Alma’s charge to his sons after the eighteenth-year battle?
As I read the rest of Alma, I see Mormon constructing a narrative that increasingly focuses on the “wars and rumors of wars” that precede the Messiah’s coming. He cannot simply slide past these battles, because their causes are religious. The single conflict with the Zoramites escalates into a war that represents ideological as well as military objectives. In Alma’s instructions to his sons, Mormon includes Corianton’s temporary attraction to Zoramite apostasy. Naturally, if Alma had included instructions to two sons, he would have included those to the third son; but Alma’s discourse to Corianton highlights what is at stake ideologically in this war. Mormon can therefore launch the protracted section on war having clearly depicted both the religious issues and the vital necessity of repenting from apostasy—which is Corianton’s story.
This is the end of the chapter in the 1830 edition.