Click to Listen: Episode 28: Mosiah 22-25
In this one, everyone comes home! The Nephites, Zarahemlas, the Alma Cult, Ammon and his boys, all of Zeniff’s peeps, and even Noah’s old priests and their kidnapped Lamanite wives; They’ve ALL been reunited, and good ol’ Mosiah is “Head King in Charge!”
“Drink” Count – 49
Just a tad over 8 Beers!
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My Book of Mormon 
August 5, 2014 at 4:44 pm
The “Good King” rhetoric from Alma immediately makes me think of Joseph Smith, who was secretly anointed to be king of the world (no joke) shortly before he died.
Of course, this could just be coincidence as well. There are lots of similarities to the Biblical account of “Kings are bad, judges good.” Nephi was a king, and we also have King Mosiah, so the whole matter is rather muddled.
Interesting how the people of Alma are much more like frontier Christians than Old Testament Jews. These similarities become more and more apparent as the book goes on, especially in the next section, The Book of Alma.
Helem, where Alma’ s people lived, was also the name of the first person baptized in the last episode. That’s probably why you recognized it.
Keep in mind, the Alma cult consists of 450 people in the wilderness. They aren’ t really in a position to set up a monarchy. But by the time the Lamanites come, these Alma-ites already have a reasonably large city in which to hide and deliberate/pray.
Keeping dates straight is especially hard in this section. We have the Lamanite army looking for Limhi and getting lost, the priests of Noah setting up a community/abducting women, Alma and his people building a city and running from Noah’s army, and then all the Nephites/Zarahemla getting back together.
Here’s a table that kind of helps. It includes dates, but I’ll defer to the Duke of Earl Grey to talk about them more if he wants: http://tinyurl.com/nvhvmxe
Amulon and the priests being set up as teachers is very weird, especially since the Lamanites were ready to wipe out all the people of Limhi just a few years ago. Even though there is a new Lamanite king, putting Amulon in charge doesn’t make any sense.
The Zarahemla people cannot be that far away from the Lamanites. Alma with his people travel the distance in 12 days, with children and livestock. And looking at the timelines presented in the book, only 80 years have passed since Zeniff (Noah’s dad) originally left King Benjamin (Mosiah’s dad). This is not a lot of time.
80 years over there in the Land of Nephi, in bondage to the Lamanites, is not enough time to grow a sizable population. Considering that many Nephites were killed during the battles with the Lamanites, and there are likely fewer Nephites coming back with Limhi than left with Zeniff, especially since Alma has 450 people that don’t initially rejoin in Zarahemla.
Another thing about time. “The children of the priests of Noah,” who choose to becomoe Nephites while their father were ruling over Alma’s people. These children cannot be more than 20 or so years old. There also simply can’t be that many of them; the priests of Noah abducted only 24 Lamanites, which puts their number at a few dozen, at most.
Okay, I’m done.
August 5, 2014 at 4:46 pm
Sorry, I mean to make this paragraph clearer. Not sure if you can do some editing magic, David…
Amulon and the priests being set up as teachers is very weird, especially since the Lamanites were ready to wipe out all the people of Limhi just a few years ago for abducting their daughters. Even though there is a new Lamanite king, putting Amulon, the ringleader of the abductors, in charge doesn’t make any sense.
August 5, 2014 at 7:00 pm
I’m not sure I’ve given much thought to the timeline issues in this part of the book, so I don’t have anything to say about that at present.
I would like to offer an explanation of the children of the priests of Noah that renounced their fathers and joined the Nephites. I assume this is referring not to any children the priests had with the Lamanite daughters they abducted, but children they had with previous wives, and whom they abandoned while running for their lives in chapter 19. So the priests of Noah are still hanging out with the Lamanites and their new families. They’re not at Zarahemla.
August 5, 2014 at 8:28 pm
That’s a good explanation. Thanks, Duke.