Alma was a diligent and devoted father. He had worked and traveled with these sons. He trusted them among his missionary companions when he went to Antionum in an effort to correct the situation with the Zoramites there. Alma knew the needs and characters of each of these individual sons. While his words to them do not sound to our ears like patriarchal blessings, in an important way these chapters preserve the father’s blessings given by Alma to his boys. Alma the Elder was a good father to Alma the Younger, and he in turn was a faithful father to these three sons. His blessings and instructions in chapters 36–38 will soon turn out to be a major part of his legacy to them, as Alma will depart later that same year from their midst and this life (Alma 45:18).
When he left, Alma had equipped his sons well. Corianton will repent of his youthful misbehavior and will “go forth among the people” with his brothers “to declare the word” (Alma 43:1). Helaman will become the high priest and head of the Church, as well as the leader of the Ammonite stripling warriors. When Helaman dies only 17 years after his father’s blessings, Shiblon will become the faithful keeper of the sacred records (Figure 1), likely because Helaman’s son Helaman was too young to assume that full responsibility. But soon Shiblon will pass the records on to Helaman, the son of Helaman, when Shiblon dies only four years after his brother Helaman had died (Alma 63:1, 10). Both of them died relatively young, perhaps due to disease or hardships
Inflicted on their bodies during the miseries of the seven years of war in the twenty war-chapters here in the last part of the Book of Alma.
In spite of these challenges, they passed the mantle of recordkeeping and spiritual leadership on down through the lineage of Alma, clear down to the end of Nephite history when the records were finally entrusted to the youthful leader Mormon. No doubt the words of Alma, found in the seven chapters Alma 36–42, were deeply inspiring to all of Alma’s posterity.
John W. Welch, “‘The Age of Man’ and Longevity in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Collegium Aescalapium (1985): 35–45.