“Thus Ended the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges”

Brant Gardner

Chronology: Mormon closes a year-record, about 76 B.C. in our modern calendar. The events of the eighteenth year have spanned from Alma’s final instructions/ blessings to sons to this major war.

Text: This is the end of a chapter in the 1830 edition, but not the book’s end, even though Mormon records: “Thus ended the record of Alma.” Mormon used a different principle for units constituting book than he did for chapters. (See Mosiah: Part 1, Context: Chapter 2, “Mormon’s Structural Editing of the Book of Mormon: Chapters and Books.”)

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 4

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