Historical: The development of Christian Baptism: These verses introduce us to Alma baptizing in the waters of Mormon. Alma's baptism is a rather modern conception of baptism, and so we may easily miss the revolutionary nature of what Alma is doing. To understand Alma's innovation we need to understand more of what he is doing, and particularly why this might be important enough for Mormon to record it.
First, we should clearly understand what Alma is doing. He introduces baptism to his believers. Because it is called "baptism" it is very easy to presume that we know exactly what the idea meant in this ancient context. That would be too simple. First, we must remember that the conception of a whole-body washing for personal purity was long a part of Israelite religion. The miqveh was a rite of washing for the cleansing of the person. It is probably this native Jewish rite that John the Baptists expands into his baptism. In the Old World, this Baptist immersion that dates to before Jesus' ministry is adopted by the Christian community and undergoes a theological evolution when it becomes associated with the death and resurrection of the Lord, a symbolism it could not have had in the hands of the Baptist.
In the New World baptism was clearly taught by Nephi, as indicated in 2 Nephi 31:4-5. This commentary on those verses discusses the possible nature of that baptism. To review, the Jewish ritual washing by immersion was performed to symbolize a state of purity, using the cleansing power of water in a symbolic cleansing. Christian baptism retains this symbolism as a means of cleansing from sin. That, however, is only one of the symbolic associations of the Christian baptism. The next element of Christian baptism is a formal covenant of entry into a community of believers. This element was clearly part of the washing of John and those performed by the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls which describe very specifically the baptism as an entrance covenant (see Vermes, G. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English. Penguin Books, 1975. P. 45). In the earlier discussion of Nephi's baptism it was noted that this was a symbolic point that distinguished Nephi's baptism from the later baptisms by John and the Qumran community. Where they baptized for entrance into a community, Nephi's community already existed as distinct entity, and the baptism was added on to the whole community's belief structure.
It is precisely at this point that Alma's baptism differs from Nephi's, and follows that of John and the Qumranians. Alma is very clearly baptizing into a separate community. Both he and the people who have followed him have separated from their homes and repaired to a completely separate location. They have already been a part of a community religion, and are now accepting a new revelation of that religion, accepting the atoning messiah as an integral part of their Mosaic observances and beliefs. As a covenant not only of cleansing, but also of entrance into this specialized community and religion, they accept baptism. We should see Alma here in his role as a major religious reformer, not that he was teaching a gospel that was unknown, but that Alma begins a social structure for organizing that religion that is unknown in the Book of Mormon until this time.
Daniel C. Peterson notes:
"Although Nephi makes it clear that baptism is the first step on the path toward eternal life (2 Nephi 31:9,18), it is not self-evident that baptism has always signified entrance into a church, or that entrance to a church has always been a part of that path.
From this beginning of the integration of a people into a religious community forcibly extracted from the dominating culture, Alma will proceed to organize other sub-communities that will be selected from the larger cultural body, and held together by common beliefs that are covenantally witnessed by a baptism that symbolizes both the cleansing of the individual and the joining with the community of believers. Alma will establish churches for the first time in the Book of Mormon. In the larger populations represented by the communities attached to Zarahemla, this innovation of baptism as an entrance into a church will allow for the coexistence of differing religious ideas in the land of Zarahemla, as well as account for the specific missions to bring dissidents back to the fold. This will be further discussed in the context of that creation in Zarahemla in later chapters.
Before leaving the topic of baptism, there is one further symbolism attached to Christian baptism that we should examine if only briefly. Paul very clearly associates baptism with the death and resurrection of Christ, using that death and rebirth as a model for the effect of baptism on the follower of Christ:
Rom. 6:3-11
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Note how completely the imagery of Christ's death and resurrection is spread throughout Paul's usage. From at least Paul's time, therefore, one of the attached symbolic elements of baptism has been the burial and resurrection theme. When one enters the water, it is not only the water of cleansing, but the grave, from which a resurrected/renewed soul arises. What is important about this symbolic aspect of baptism is that it absolutely requires that the death and resurrection of Christ be an important theme, and that it has already been accomplished. What is most fascinating about Book of Mormon baptismal symbolism is that it never mentions this particular symbolic aspect. This is clearly in keeping with the time period so long prior to Christ's earthly mission, and in keeping with the emphasis on the atoning savior rather than Paul's dying savior.