Alma 27:25-30

Brant Gardner

The Anti-Nephi-Lehies happily accept the Nephite proposal and leave their homes and ancestral lands for a new place among a people who had once been their enemies. Once again, they elect to change their name. The name Anti-Nephi-Lehi had some important distinction in the land of the Lamanites, identifying them as religious followers of Nephi and Lehi, although politically still Lamanites. After moving to Nephite lands, the distinctive naming was no longer useful.

The former Anti-Nephi-Lehies had been numbered among the church, and no longer needed to distinguish their beliefs. They take upon themselves Ammon’s name, becoming the people of Ammon, or Ammonites. Although verse 30 is certainly the ending of this story, we will see the Ammonites again in Alma 56:57, where we will read the story of the “stripling Ammonites.”

There is no chapter break at this point in the 1830 edition. The information that the Ammonites were given the land of Jershon will lead into the next story that Mormon is telling.

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