Text: The last chapter terminated with the statement that it ended Alma’s record. Helaman begins his own record as a continuation of his father’s book. Mormon regarded book divisions as engendered by dynastic shifts, rather than a change in writers. (See Mosiah, Part 1: Context, Chapter 2, “Mormon’s Structural Editing: Chapters and Books.”) Helaman continues Alma’s dynasty and also continues Alma’s book, named for Alma because he was the first in the dynasty, even though the plates themselves have been transferred from the political ruler to the religious one. Alma received the plates when he became chief judge, kept them when he gave up the judgment seat, and passed them to his son, rather than returning them to the political ruler. The next book occurs when the plates are transferred back to the political line with Helaman2 (Hel. 2:2).
Mormon introduces Helaman as the next writer and completes Alma’s story, marking it with the year change. Even though Alma is no longer writing, it is the year’s “death,” not Alma’s, that marks the division in the chapters. A large number of the following chapters (chapters as defined in the 1830 edition, and therefore likely Mormon’s chapter divisions) terminate with year markers. This device characterizes Mesoamerican historical records, suggesting that Mormon’s sources were arranged as annals, or events categorized by years.