Why Is Alma the Younger’s Unique Voice Important?

The Know

The Book of Mormon was primarily compiled by Mormon, but it also includes the voices of 148 other authors and quoted individuals, like Nephi and Alma the Younger.1 Alma’s is the third-most-heard voice in the Book of Mormon, after Mormon’s and Nephi’s, with 20,051 words and 7.5 percent of the total text.2 Alma’s words are preserved as direct quotations by Mormon, primarily in sermons and in blessings or counsel to Alma’s sons.3 Alma’s unique language conveys important doctrines and personal testimonies.

Various stylometric studies have confirmed that, indeed, Alma’s voice has a style distinctive from those of the many other ancient individuals who contributed to the Book of Mormon.4 Thus, a study of Alma’s voice can teach readers more about Alma himself and unfold the rich verbal background that stands behind his profound teachings.5 As John Hilton III noted, “ultimately, the power of identifying [a prophet’s] distinctive voice” is found in the verbal “portrait of [each] faithful prophet.”6

Alma’s tendency to use seemingly insignificant words can highlight his unique speaking patterns.7 Alma uses yea and now a disproportionate amount compared to other voices. He proportionally uses now more than any other Book of Mormon voice (using it over three times more than Lehi, Nephi, and Moroni), and he also uses yea more than all except three of the minor voices.8 Alma often uses now in conjunction with application questions to prompt his listeners to ponder and personally answer each question right away, as Alma clearly knew the importance of timely action. Though Alma’s emphatic use of yea and now may be specifically tailored to sermons, the occurrence of these words in Alma’s sermons is disproportionately higher than in any other sermons in the Book of Mormon, “making it extremely unlikely that Alma’s frequent use of these words occur by chance.”9

Alma also uses many words and phrases of theological significance that teach us even more about him. Such topical words and phrases are more subject to circumstance and are less crucial for identifying a unique speaking pattern; nonetheless, they reveal the thoughts and values of an individual. Omission can be instructive as well. Alma uses the word “covenant” only once (in Alma 7:15), although it is used more than one hundred and fifty times by numerous others in the Book of Mormon.10 Perhaps this was because most people in Alma’s audiences were already under covenant. What they needed, as Alma knew well, was to repent, and so he used the words repent or repentance about fifty times.

Some of Alma’s significant words include state (which he used twenty-four times), soul (sixty times), plan (twenty times), and resurrection (thirty-four times), often in the context of teachings about the afterlife.11 Alma also uses at least twenty different names or titles for Jesus Christ, three of which are uniquely found in his writings or speeches in the Book of Mormon.12

Alma uses soul  more frequently and more total times than any other speaker, appearing in every major message but especially Alma 40. He uses it somewhat uniquely; five other Book of Mormon authors speak of the welfare of souls, and Nephi frequently speaks of his soul delighting, but Alma never does. Rather, Alma uniquely speaks of souls as either being racked with torment or comforted. Alma frequently uses soul in connection with physical bodies, resurrection, and the afterlife.13 In passages discussing the resurrection, Alma favors soul while Jacob uses spirit, showing a distinct preference.

Alma uses resurrection thirty-four times, more than any other Book of Mormon author, and thirty of those are written to Corianton. Only Abinadi uses resurrection proportionally more but Hilton suggests that Abinadi’s frequent use of resurrection may have been passed to Alma the Younger through Alma the Elder.14 Though limited samples are often misrepresentative, we know that Alma himself had undergone a near-death experience and had pondered deeply about the Resurrection. Having received revelation about the reality of life after mortality, Alma could tell Corianton about it without hesitation: “But I show unto you one thing which I have inquired diligently of God that I might know—that is concerning the resurrection” (Alma 40:3).

Alma uses plan in terms of God’s plan more than anyone else in the Book of Mormon. Only Amulek, his convert and preaching companion, uses it proportionally more.15 Amulek uses five of the nine Book of Mormon terms for God’s plan, though Alma coins three unique descriptors when instructing Corianton: plan of restoration, plan of happiness, and plan of mercy.16 Alma’s strident teachings about the Final Judgment and the suffering of Christ may have seemed especially severe to his Nehorite contemporaries, who believed in unconditional salvation, no absolute morality, and no afterlife.17 However, Alma emphasized what God’s plan was really about with the words he used to describe the plan: mercy, happiness, restoration, salvation, and redemption.

Philip Allred notes that Alma uses the word state to reword other concepts, especially when discussing the abstract conditions of the afterlife. However, Alma also uses the word more than other Book of Mormon authors when discussing the concept of agency, suggesting that his usage is unique.18

Alma employs considerable skill in speaking, using several rhetorical strategies. Perhaps because so much of his material was delivered in speeches, Alma asks more rhetorical questions in total than the other authors and is second proportionally only to Abinadi.19 Alma asks 102 questions, primarily in Alma 5, and most often uses the phrases believest thou and can ye to ask pointed application questions.20

Alma was a well-informed leader, and his teachings hint at an awareness of Israelite culture, festivals, temple worship, and law—something his technical vocabulary corroborates.21 Of particular note is Alma’s use of chiasmus in Alma 36, Alma 41, and elsewhere. This literary device was commonly used in Hebrew literary composition and uses symmetrical structures to emphasize similarities, contrasts, or consequential turning points.22 Scholars have also argued that Alma’s writings show an attunement to Mesoamerican religious traditions and imagery as well as a sensitivity to the divided Nephite culture itself.23 He was an effective spiritual shepherd—in fact, Shepherd is a title for Christ used particularly by Alma, the high priest, seven times.24

Alma’s writings clearly seem to have been influenced by earlier Book of Mormon authors. As the main Nephite recordkeeper, Alma seems to quote or paraphrase Lehi, Benjamin, the angel who corrected him, and others, most especially Abinadi.25 His teachings also had a powerful influence on his own and later generations, and phrases he said were adopted by both Ammon (Alma’s close friend in the land of Zarahemla) and Samuel the Lamanite (a later prophet who spoke from the walls of Zarahemla).26 Mormon’s inclusion of so many of Alma’s teachings attests not only the spiritual power of Alma’s messages but also the extent of Alma’s “dutiful and detailed recordkeeping.”27

The Why

Alma’s unique voice was shaped by the prophet’s turbulent personal past and his surprising redemption. He was said to be “a man of many words” before his conversion, a skill which he used initially for flattery but later for teaching the people (Mosiah 27:8, 32). His cultural awareness and skillful rhetoric, once used to destroy the church of God, were then used to build it up.

Alma’s past also helps explain some of his frequently repeated phrases and topics. Like the Apostle John, Alma makes particular mention of the importance of being born again through God.28 Alma teaches that being born again is an essential spiritual process in preparing for the afterlife.

Another of Alma’s specific themes is remembering ancestral and personal captivity of the past, something that an angel exhorted Alma to do:

Go, and remember the captivity of thy fathers in the land of Helam, and in the land of Nephi; and remember how great things he has done for them; for they were in bondage, and he has delivered them.29

Alma reiterates this advice repeatedly throughout his ministry while affirming that he has taken it to heart:

Then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me. Yea, and I also remember the captivity of my fathers; for I surely do know that the Lord did deliver them out of bondage, and by this did establish his church.30

It can certainly be unpleasant to remember past trials we or our ancestors endured, whether because of sins or outside circumstances. However, a healthy level of remembrance fills individuals with gratitude for deliverance and prevents us from falling into similar errors. Moroni suggests that remembering God’s mercy in the past is part of receiving a divine witness of the Book of Mormon’s truth:

Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.31

On a personal level, scripture exhorts all to balance a memory of our mistakes with an optimistic focus on the future. Peter suggests that we often err because we forget that we were “purged from [our] old sins,” but Paul also recommends “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” (2 Peter 1:9; Philippians 3:13). Readers can take comfort in Alma’s being forgiven and in the mercies exhibited in their own lives. This can then allow sublime gratitude to fuel them as it did Alma.32