Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained that the phrase “taken up by the Spirit, or buried by the hand of the Lord” (Alma 45:19) suggests that Alma was translated: “Moses, Elijah, and Alma the younger, were translated. The Old Testament account that Moses died and was buried by the hand of the Lord in an unknown grave is an error. (Deut. 34:5–7.) It is true that he may have been ‘buried by the hand of the Lord,’ if that expression is a figure of speech which means that he was translated. But the Book of Mormon account, in recording that Alma ‘was taken up by the Spirit,’ says, ‘the scriptures saith the Lord took Moses unto himself; and we suppose that he has also received Alma in the spirit, unto himself.’ (Alma 45:18–19.) It should be remembered that the Nephites had the Brass Plates, and that they were the ‘scriptures’ which gave the account of Moses being taken by way of translation. As to Elijah, the account of his being taken in ‘a chariot of fire … by a whirlwind into heaven,’ is majestically set out in the Old Testament. (2 Kings 2.)” (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 805).