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The Supremacy of the Word: Alma’s Mission to the Zoramites and the Conversion of the Lamanites

TitleThe Supremacy of the Word: Alma’s Mission to the Zoramites and the Conversion of the Lamanites
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2015
AuthorsPerry, Michael F.
JournalJournal of Book of Mormon Studies
Volume24
Pagination119-137
Type of ArticleEssay
KeywordsAlma the Younger; Amulek; Conversion; Faith; Missionary Work; Word; Zoramite (Apostate Group)
Abstract

This article explores the connection between Alma’s mission to the Zoramites in Alma 31 and the mass Lamanite conversion in Helaman 5, which occurs in part because the Lamanites who are intent on killing Nephi and Lehi in prison remember the teachings of Alma, Amulek, and Zeezrom delivered to the Zoramites decades earlier. This reading demonstrates that Alma’s mission to the Zoramites is not a failure, as some commentators have suggested; in fact, the eventual positive impact of the Zoramite mission readily compares to the success enjoyed by the sons of Mosiah among the Lamanites. This article also suggests that Mormon’s lengthy war narrative at the end of the book of Alma can be read as a literary unit designed in part to show, as Alma hoped and predicted at the outset of his Zoramite mission, that the word of God (at least eventually) has a “more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else” (Alma 31:5).

URLhttps://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol24/iss1/6

Scripture Reference

Alma 31:5
Helaman 5:1-52