“Remembrance the Captivity of Your Fathers”

Jana Reiss

Alma employs the language of King Benjamin’s sermon to call the Nephites to task for turning away from the covenants their parents and grandparents once made. The query “have you sufficiently retained in remembrance” is repeated three times. Also, there is an important repetition of the theme of captivity here. Alma seems to be recalling his own dramatic conversion some years earlier, when an angel of the Lord used the same language (“remember the captivity of thy fathers”) to bring him to humility and repentance (Mosiah 27:16). As Alma was once taught, so he now teaches others.

The Book of Mormon: Selections Annotated & Explained

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