In Alma 63:15 we learned that an army of dissenters had come down against Moronihah and were beaten back. In spite of this military action in the previous year, we have the almost sardonic comment that in the beginning of the fortieth year there began to be serious difficulty among the Nephites. The pressures have been steadily mounting internally as well as externally. The defeated invasion of Moronihah was an external problem, the real serious difficulties will now come as the problems become internal.
Chronological: The fortieth year of the reign of the judges translates to approximately 54 BC in the correlation used in this commentary.
Textual: This verse introduces a completely new book. This is not just a chapter change, but a shift in the naming of the entire text. The shift also occurs with no fanfare, no notification. It is possible that the original record would have had some type of colophon to identify the writer and to validate the shift in the naming of the books, but we are missing that information because Mormon elected not to write it. Mormon is in the middle of a terrible story, and the events in the book of Helaman are very certainly continuations of the conflicts we have already seen at the end of the book of Alma. It is therefore quite natural from Mormon’s narrative perspective to begin this new book much as he would have begun a new chapter. He continues to abbreviate the historical situation so that we will know the context of the times.
This leaves us, however, without a specific reason for the changing of the books. We know that the name of the book changes, but there is no narrative function in the change. If we were to accept the idea that Joseph Smith was the sole author of the text, we would be left with the rather serious question of why he would elect to name a new book when there was no significant change occurring.
When we remember that this is a translation of an ancient document, however, the fact of the change is apparent. What we need to understand is not why Mormon elected to start a new book, because it was not his decision. Mormon has a new book because his source was a new book. Now our question is why that source changed the name on the book.
The answer must be deduced. The important pieces of information come from the previous chapter and the next. In Alma 63:11 we learn that the plates have been given to Helaman the son of Helaman. In Helaman 2:2 we learn that Helaman is appointed to sit as chief judge. It is this appointment as chief judge that occasions the change in the name. The record of Alma began with Alma the Younger as a chief judge and as the religious leader. As the beginning point of a new dynasty, his name was appended to the record. While the record began in the hands of a political leader, Alma the Younger abdicated that responsibility to concentrate on his religious duties, but he retained the plates. When he passes on the plates, he does so to his own lineage, but a lineage that is not enthroned. When Helaman the son of Helaman receives the plates, he is not part of the political tradition. Therefore, when he receives the plates he writes in them as part of the dynasty following Alma.
In the book of Helaman, however, we have Helaman as an enthroned chief judge. As the political leader, he now begins a new political dynasty, and it is the political dynasties that have dictated the book-name changes in the large plate tradition. Therefore, Helaman should receive his own book, and does. The reasons for the shift in the text are completely logical with the internal logic of the nature of the textual transmission, even when they are not logical with the narration as Mormon conceived it.