“Do Not Suppose That This Is All”

Brant Gardner

Rhetorical: Members of a community are required to live by the rules of that community. Amulek is describing this people as a part of the community of the coming king/Messiah, and he now indicates that the relationship is not simple vertical, but also horizontal. The vertical relationship is one of supplicant before the king.

The horizontal relationship is as members of the same community, and therefore there are rules for communal interaction. These rules in Nephite society are egalitarian. They emphasize leveling of class and care for others. This is quite the opposite of what we have seen for Zoramite culture, which emphasizes social segregation. Social segregration does not lead to caring for the sick and afflicted when those illnesses cross the elite/non-elite social demarcations. Amulek is urging this people into a new society with a new king.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

References