These chapters (and 39) are all focused on Corianton, who gets quite the paternal talk. Assuming that these chapters aren’t using Corianton merely as a framework to talk doctrine (i.e. why would this all be recorded, or is Mormon expanding it?), we can guess that Corianton hadn’t understood some things, such as the resurrection, justice, mercy, atonement. What do we know about Corianton? One thing is that he must have been relatively young, although what that means in a Nephite... Read more

The Book of Mormon has a variable pace. Occasionally, we skip through decades or even hundreds of years on a single page. Other times, like today, Mormon’s editing moves us into super slow motion, relatively speaking. What is probably only a few hours in real time for Alma to speak to his sons occupies six full chapters, which we slow down further by breaking it up into two weeks of study. This will be significant for understanding Alma 43 onwards, and I’ll... Read more

First, the structure of the text. Alma 30-34 are really one unit, which we break up. In the 1830, they constitute one chapter (Alma XVI). Presumably, we’re breaking these up because of their doctrinal nature. Today we cover Alma 32-34, which looks like thisin the rough big-picture outline. 32– Alma continues preaching at Antionum; “faith sermon” on the hill Onidah. 33– Crowd’s negative response; Alma continues his sermon. 34– Amulek takes over, and preaches to the crowd on the hill. Surprisingly, not a... Read more