The Know

During his missionary travels, Ammon preached extensively to the people of King Lamoni, having first offered to be the king’s servant. However, after Ammon saved the king’s flocks from would-be assailants, King Lamoni believed him to be more than just a human. When Lamoni heard of Ammon’s “great power in contending against those who sought to slay him, he was astonished exceedingly, and said: Surely, this is more than a man. Behold, is not this the Great Spirit who doth send such great punishments upon this people, because of their murders?” (Alma 18:2).

Lamoni’s servants likewise share this belief, stating, “Whether he be the Great Spirit or a man, we know not,” but on account of his “great strength,” the servants added, “we do not believe that a man has such great power, for we know he cannot be slain” (Alma 18:3). Soon thereafter, “one of the king’s servants said unto [Ammon], Rabbanah, which is, being interpreted, powerful or great king, considering their kings to be powerful” (Alma 18:13).

As Matthew L. Bowen has observed, the title Rabbanah “strongly suggests its Semitic/Hebrew origins (from the root *rbb/rby/rbh, ‘to be [become] numerous,’ ‘be large,’ ‘to be [become] great,’ ‘to increase, become powerful’).” Thus, this designation is best understood in the same context as viewing Ammon as the Great Spirit; Bowen noted that Mormon’s gloss “highlights two narrative terms key to the Lamanite transition to faith in Christ: great and power.” Furthermore, Ammon then “drew on divine power and used it within the existing Lamanite belief system to enlarge a generalized belief in the ‘Great Spirit’ into faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement.”1

Central to Lamanite belief appears to be a view that the Great Spirit acted as a divine warrior on behalf of the people as well as the cosmos as a whole. This belief can be traced to the Old Testament, which used language that attributed to Jehovah the characteristics of a divine warrior who comes from heaven to fight battles on behalf of his covenant people. This language and belief system is also common to traditions throughout the ancient world.2 Jacob previously used this same language was previously in 2 Nephi 6, suggesting that the Lehites carried this tradition with them from the Old World.3

This belief helps explain the Ammon story since it was, after all, Ammon’s initial battle in victory that led the Lamanites to believe that Ammon was an embodied god, and frequent mention is made of his great power or great strength. Furthermore, Lamoni states the Great Spirit had come to preserve his servants’ lives (Alma 18:4). Other Lamanites later stated that the Great Spirit “had destroyed so many of their brethren” in defending the Nephites rather than the Lamanites (Alma 19:27).4 Such views of God fighting in active defense of His covenant people are typical of the divine warrior motif. Because of the Lamanite emphasis on God’s activities as a divine warrior, which “necessarily implied power in war,” Bowen observes that “Ammon’s fighting skills made him the ideal, if not the perfect, missionary” for these people at this time.5

Ammon also noticed this and viewed gathering Lamoni’s flocks as an opportunity to “show forth my power unto these my fellow-servants, or the power which is in me … that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may lead them to believe in my words” (Alma 17:29). Ammon’s great or mighty power is furthermore highlighted throughout Alma 17–18 and led Ammon to begin teaching King Lamoni and his servants.

Rather than confirm the belief that Ammon was divine, however, “Ammon recognizes this as the perfect opportunity to explain the power of Christ and to help Lamoni activate that power in his life via the doctrine of Christ, beginning with faith.”6 As such, he asks, “Wilt thou hearken unto my words, if I tell thee by what power I do these things?” (Alma 18:22). Ammon then goes on to show that Jesus Christ was the ultimate source of his power and that Jesus Christ ultimately has the power needed to save and deliver all people.

The Why

As Ammon taught, Lamoni believed all the words Ammon spoke and prayed for a remission of his sins. Significantly, the power of God continued to play an important role throughout the rest of Ammon’s mission but in a new way. Rather than describing God as powerful in warfare, the Lamanites began to recognize more clearly God’s power to save from sin and death. Lamoni was described as being “under the power of God” when having a heavenly vision, and Lamoni’s wife recognized Ammon as having power not to be victorious in warfare but “to do many mighty works in his name” (Alma 19:4, 6).

There is also a clear shift as the Lamanites recognizes God’s great love more and more. Bowen noted, “The power of Christ’s atoning love was greater than anything the Lamanites had ever experienced in warrior culture. The true power of the Great Spirit was love.”7 This is perhaps seen in the prayer of Anti-Nephi-Lehi, who describes God as great, focusing not on great warfare, but rather His love for His children: “And the great God has had mercy on us … because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations” (Alma 24:14).

Ammon would likewise mention the great power of God found through His love as he offered an extended thanksgiving at the conclusion of his mission. Ammon asked his brothers, “Who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men?” He also related how God’s great mercy had been extended to the people a few years previously, allowing them to repent, and he ultimately observed how the great power of God had led to such a feeling of love throughout the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi: “And now behold I say unto you, has there been so great love in all the land? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, there has not, even among the Nephites” (Alma 26:16, 20, 33). Rather than focusing on his own accomplishments, Ammon constantly deferred all praise to the Lord, rightfully recognizing that it was only through His love and power that this work could have ever been accomplished.

As Bowen noted, “Ammon had been honored by the Lamanites from a doctrinally incomplete perspective as ‘Rabbanah.’ Christ’s power in Ammon as warrior had garnered their attention, but it was the power of Christ’s love in Ammon for Lamoni and all the Lamanites that turned them to Jesus as the true Rabbanah.”8 Because of his careful ministry, Ammon was able to bring many to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they were “firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end,” recognizing the pure love of Christ in their lives (Alma 27:27).

Footnotes

• 1. Matthew L. Bowen, “Rabbanah: Ammon as a Type of Jesus Christ,” in Book of Mormon Insights: Letting God Prevail in Your Life, ed. Kenneth L. Alford, Krystal V. L. Pierce, and Mary Jane Woodger (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2024), 145–146.
• 2. For extended surveys of this topic, see, for example, Nicholas Wyatt, Myths of Power: A Study of Royal Myth and Ideology in Ugaritic and Biblical Tradition (Munster, Germany: Ugarit-Verlag, 1996); Martin Klingbeil, Yahweh Fighting from Heaven: God as Warrior and as God of Heaven in the Hebrew Psalter and Ancient Near Eastern Iconography (Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999); Michael A. Fishbane, Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003).
• 3. See Daniel Belnap, “‘I Will Contend with Them That Contendeth with Thee’: The Divine Warrior in Jacob’s Speech of 2 Nephi 6–10,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture 17, no. 1–2 (2008): 20–39; see also Book of Mormon Central, “Why Does Jacob Describe God as a Divine Warrior? (2 Nephi 6:17),” KnoWhy 277 (February 20, 2017).
• 4. Brant Gardner highlights the belief that Mesoamerican demigods, which he argues included Ammon in the Lamanites’ minds, “were not always beneficial—indeed, were often malevolent.” These “demi-gods did not act logically or consistently,” rather focusing on “their own other-worldly purposes and mysterious motives.” This aspect of pre-Columbian worship could also explain the fear expressed by Lamoni and his people at the prospect of an embodied god fighting among his people, especially if this god had previously been primarily defending the Nephites this whole time and had grown angry with the loss of life among Lamoni’s servants. Brant A. Gardner, Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History (Salt Lake City, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2015), 288.
• 5. Bowen, “Rabbanah,” 146.
• 6. Bowen, “Rabbanah,” 149.
• 7. Bowen, “Rabbanah,” 151.
• 8. Bowen, “Rabbanah,” 153–154.