“For Behold He Hath Blessed Mine House”

Alan C. Miner

In Alma 10:11, Amulek refers to Alma's blessing: "he hath blessed mine house, he hath blessed me, and my women, and my children, and my father and my kinsfolk; yea, even all my kindred hath he blessed."

According to Brant Gardner, this blessing gives the reader an interesting picture of how Amulek perceives his kinship lines. While the information is not detailed we can still make some inferences:

(1) We have a structural division in the sentence (a semi-colon) that seems to separate a list of specific kin from the generic "all my kindred."

(2) The sentence seems to progress from a specific individual ("me") to the largest and most inclusive category of kindred ("all my kindred").

Thus it is quite possible that the term "mine house" is direct for the first set of terms ("me," "my women," "my children," "my father," "my kinsfolk"), and indirect for the second extended set ("all my kindred").

It is important to pull apart the sentence because there are terms and relationships that are important for kin relationships. The first is "my house." Kin based societies frequently live in compounds where related family members live. There are excellent materials that allow anthropologists to have a picture of some Aztec households close to the time of the Conquest. For the Aztecs, the "family" was termed "techan tlaca" or "the people of one's house." One account from 1580 indicates that houses typically contained six or seven married couples besides unmarried youth. Living areas containing multiple buildings are a common feature of the archaeological sites of the Maya, dating to the time period of the Book of Mormon. A simple example is the site of Salinas La Blanca. Thus when Amulek speaks of Alma blessing his "house" and then lists specific peoples, we are justified in assuming that these are people that are living in the same "house," which would mean the entire dwelling area, not a single structure. Clearly Amulek is the head of the household, listing himself first, then "my women," "my children," my father," and "my kinsfolk."

In the second part of Alma's blessing on Amulek, it is quite possible that the defining phrase, "all my kindred" is not as ill defined as we consider it in a modern society. Among the Aztecs, there were certain penalties that could be applied to all of ones relatives. For a penalty to be assessed upon all of ones relatives, there had to be a definition of what "all" meant, and it was either to the fifth or the fourth generation, depending upon the source. Although the Aztecs are a different language and time, it is probable that the same necessities of defining a maximum kin group would also have dictated Amulek's concepts of what "all my kindred" might mean. [Brant Gardner, "Book of Mormon Commentary," [http://www.highfiber.com/~nahualli/] LDStopics/Alma/ Alma10.htm, pp. 5-6]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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