Rhetoric: Alma now explains how the priests’ ordination after “the order of the Son” would create a type of the Son’s mission. He positions the priests at the “foundation” of the world, thus locating them somewhere in the Garden of Eden framework, although they were not personally present in the garden. Thus, he makes a parallel between the priests’ ordination and the already narrated story of the Garden of Eden.
Next, he establishes these priests’ agency—the same agency that Adam and Eve had. The blessing of becoming a priest is not universal. It is restricted to those who have chosen righteousness and exercised great faith. To them is given a holy calling, or the priesthood.
This argument is fascinating coming from one claiming historical and religious descent from the Hebrews. The Hebrew priesthood known from the post-Mosaic religion was lineage based, not the agency-based priesthood Alma is describing. It appears that the Melchizedek Priesthood differed in this way from the Aaronic (Levitical) Priesthood. Levitical priesthood was bestowed on condition of inheritance, Melchizedek on condition of individual righteousness. Alma implies that the Nephites functioned under this agency-based priesthood, a sound argument since the Nephites had no lineal connection to the Levites.
Even this priesthood has a history. It, too, was “prepared.” The English text is frustratingly unclear here. The priesthood was prepared both “with” and “according to” the plan of redemption. Do these terms express nuances of different meaning?
As I read this passage, Alma is saying that the priesthood is intimately connected with the plan of redemption, bestowed when the candidate has chosen to live by principles of righteousness. It is effective in the context of a plan that allows for repentance and redemption, which are supplied by the Atoning Messiah. In other words, priestly authority is an inseparable part of the plan of the Redeemer whom they deny. Alma is undercutting their ability to have faith in their own lawyers-scribes, as this priesthood dating from the very foundation of time is inherently bound to a plan the lawyers deny.