Two quick notes on today’s reading:
1.
When, in verse 6, the people of Ammonihah proudly demand “Who is God, that sendeth no more authority than one man among this people?” they unwittingly repeat the question of King Noah (see Mosiah 11:27), who unwittingly repeated the words of Pharaoh (see Exodus 5:2). In the two prior cases, human arrogance led to humiliation, death, and destruction. Unsurprisingly, the city and people of Ammonihah will meet a similar fate.
2.
In verse thirteen, Alma cites the words of Lehi: “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land.” Also, “Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord.” Those words are originally given at 2 Nephi 1:20, fully 174 pages prior to Alma 9:13 in the current English printed edition.
Now, it’s not completely impossible that Joseph Smith could have done this by purely natural means. But the fact that he was dictating roughly 8.5 to 11 pages daily, supposedly off the top of his head and with no smuggled-in, pre-existing manuscript on which to rely, makes it rather hard for me to believe that he could remember the earlier text in such detail as to reproduce it this way. And the problem is made all the more challenging when we consider the consensus of many scholars today that Joseph Smith dictated the first portion of today’s printed editions (1 Nephi through Words of Mormon) after the later portion (Mosiah through Moroni). In other words, Joseph was quoting from a text that he supposedly hadn’t made up yet, and he had to retain Alma 9:13 in his head and make sure that he inserted it when he dictated the earlier part of his invented yarn.
I dunno. That seems a bit difficult to me.
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