Culture: Mormon does not define how much time they spent preaching to the Zoramites or why they decided to go to Jershon when they did. Jershon is a logical location, since it is closer than Zarahemla. They would have depended on the generosity of those whom they visited to feed and house them. Apparently their message had appealed to the poorest Zoramites, who were therefore the least able to offer hospitality, especially for a sustained period. Most Zoramites were completely unsympathetic—and worse, as we shall see in this chapter. The welcoming support of Jershon would have been sustaining to them.
Text: Mormon resumes his narrative, a transition from Alma and Amulek’s quoted sermons to Alma’s quoted instructions to his sons. It is also preparation for the unit which follows Alma’s instruction: the most intensive discussion of wars in the Book of Mormon. This florescence of warfare has its origins in this chapter because “the more popular part of the Zoramites had consulted together concerning the words which had been preached unto them, [and] they were angry because of the word, for it did destroy their craft; therefore they would not hearken unto the words” (Alma 35:3). Their anger resulted in war.
The “more popular part of the Zoramites” is not those who were well-liked but rather “popular” in the older sense of “populace”—of the people. Not only the leaders but the majority of the people are angry. They were so committed to their “craft” that they had willingly forsaken lands and social connections in some other place to relocate at Antionum. Among what they had left behind was the Nephite religion, which they had actively rejected. It is not surprising that they also rejected the missionaries.
Mormon’s scorn for the Zoramite religion appears in his use of the word “craft,” by which he means “priestcraft,” rather than a true religion. He also accurately foresees that they reject the gospel because accepting it would destroy something in the Zoramite culture. Religion provided the formal underpinnings and outward presentation of the political structure. In the Zoramite case, the whole purpose and end of the religio-political structure was to maintain a social hierarchy. Egalitarian gospel principles, if adopted, would have destroyed the Zoramite social and political structure (not to mention their religion). The gospel and Zoramite religion could not coexist, just as Nephite and the Nehorite religions could not coexist (Alma 2:4).