Things I Noticed about Alma and Ammon et al.

* Peculiar that one of Alma’s first chief captains who led a victorious war against the Lamanites was named Zoram (Alma 16). Then just a few years later we have the Zoramites, who are named after their leader, Zoram. No apparent connection. Just a common name?

* Sometimes bad guys in the Book of Mormon are introduced as if they were randos. So in Alma 30 you have “there came a man into the land” (its Korihor) and then the leader of the Zoramites is introduced as “being led by a man whose name was Zoram.” I think this is meant to indicate a lack of legitimate authority or office.

* Here’s an interesting parallel. The Anti-Nephi-Lehis give up their swords because they had been so vicious before they believed they would fall back into their old habits if they had them. Meanwhile, Alma tells Korihor he can’t have his speech restored or else Korihor will fall back into his old habits. ANLs:swords::Korihor:tongue. Korihor comes to a bad end, of course, but it is possible he was repentant when he did die. The scriptures do not say. I am inclined to think not because of his attitude when he was struck dumb. The ANLs vowed to put away their swords forever and in fact buried them. Korihor begged to have his speech restored.

* You have to fight the draw to feel like the reign of the Judges is a liberal democracy. The notion keeps trying to pull you in. After all, in Korihor’s chapter (Alma 30) the narrator emphasizes that they have laws against secular crimes but not laws compelling religious belief. Religious freedom! But then in the same chapter the people of Ammon (the ANLs) and the people in Gideon both arrest him for saying nasty stuff and either kick him out or turn him over to the ultimate authorities. No one in the text seems to see any issue with it. In fact, they are commended. So something like freedom of religion? Yes. Something like free speech? Probably not.

*Alma 25 contains an apologetic for Abinadi. It’s an extremely clever proof of textual authenticity, Joseph Smith was a genius. Let me lay it out.

* In Mosiah 17:18, Abinadi prophesies that King Noah and his wicked priests will eventually also suffer death by fire. (Read v. 14, the prophecy is “unto them,” not just King Noah). Noah gets his in Mosiah 19:20

* But the priests skip out and apparently thrive until finally the Lamanites turn on them in Alma 25 and the writer (Alma or Mormon, probably) does a little aside to explain that this fulfilled Abinadi’s prophecy. Inconveniently it doesn’t seem that the Amulonites are suffering death by fire, so the writer points out all the other ways the prophecy lines up and passes over that aspect in silence. Any author could create a prophecy and then bobble the details a little, could happen to anyone. But it takes a genius to have a prophecy mostly fulfilled but with just a tiny bit a little off, and have the narrator get defensive and over-explain in compensation. Me, I happen to think that J. Smith was a genius, but not in that particular way. I don’t think he wrote the thing.