The priests, ordained after the order of the Son, take upon themselves a calling that is “without beginning or end.” The Son is also without beginning or end. With these last two verses, Alma tightly links true priesthood with the Son. Since the Ammonihahites do not believe in the Atoning Messiah, they cannot have the true priesthood.
Variant: The earliest manuscripts have “the Son of the Only Begotten of the Father.” This appears to be a transmission error. (See commentary accompanying Alma 5:48 where the same error exists.)
Text: This is the end of a chapter in the 1830 edition but not in the modern edition, because there is no obvious break except the “Amen” and that word does not always end chapters, nor even sections. There is no indication of a break and the theme of the following section continues the exposition on priesthood. Unlike most of Mormon’s chapter breaks, this one is difficult to understand as it appears to violate one of Mormon’s principles, which was to keep sermons together unless they covered multiple days.