Rhetoric: Alma begins his discourse with an interesting ploy. He does two things; he includes the Ammonihahites in a particular tradition and then tells them that they have forgotten that tradition. He is equating the “traditions of your fathers” with Yahweh’s commandments.
Alma begins by tracing Nephite authority back to Lehi the progenitor. After he declares this particular lineage-as-authority, he will link Yahweh’s commandments to that tradition. The importance of this technique lies in its social context.
Lehi’s lineage underwent a fission very early in Nephite history. After that fission, the Nephites established a completely new colony in the land of Nephi. This commentary takes the position that this community included people who were not genetically related to Lehi and that the development of the community brought them into contact with still others who were Lehi’s descendants. This complex development led to a politico-religious schism in which Mosiah1 fled with those who remained loyal to the Nephite religion, eventually settling in Zarahemla.
Zarahemla was an established city whose inhabitants outnumbered the immigrating Nephites. However, by means not included in our current text, the Nephites became the ruling lineage, also instituting Nephite worship among the Zarahemlaites. These Zarahemlaites had been Hebrews a couple of hundred years earlier but, in the meantime, had lost their language, culture, and their God (Omni 1:17). They had become Mesoamericanized, and their acceptance of the Nephites must have caused some religious difficulties despite what seems to have been willing submission.
These tensions between old and new religion erupted into internal contentions, the results of which became apparent in Benjamin’s sermon as he tried to heal the rift in his community. In spite of Benjamin’s efforts, however, some type of external pressure continued to influence the development of politico-religious ideas in Zarahemla and the surrounding lands. One of those competing philosophies was the order of the Nehors, which Alma found rampant in Ammonihah.
With this background we can appreciate some of Alma’s rhetorical tactics. By appealing to Lehi, Alma appealed to what had come to be seen as the legitimate line of rulers—at least for the period prior to the reign of the judges (if not thereafter). Thus, Alma begins by an appeal to authority—the authority that allowed Mosiah1 to rule over a people he had almost literally stumbled into.
This appeal to authority was done in a powerful way, for Alma indicated that these fathers are theirs. Alma is including the Ammonihahites in the tradition and places them in a position where they should be “Nephites”—politically and religiously. Only after he has included them in the defining tradition of the fathers does he declare that they have left that tradition. Even though they have not recognized Alma’s authority, Alma invokes an authority and a tradition that they must recognize since they are a people who recognize the political hegemony termed Nephite. Mesoamerican political authority was traced through lineage, even when that lineage might be adopted or mythological.