BOM Alma 61

It’s time to get back on track with my little commentary on the Book of Mormon.

In earlier entries on Alma 54 and Alma 60, I’ve commented on the Nephite military commander Moroni’s “spirited nature,” which makes him a wonderful warrior but perhaps a less than optimal diplomat.

We see a quite different personality in the Nephite chief governor Pahoran, a politician rather than a military man, as he appears in Alma 61.

Notice, for instance, his soft response to Moroni’s letter of the previous chapter, which basically threatened to do him in:

And now, in your epistle you have censured me, but it mattereth not; I am not angry, but do rejoice in the greatness of your heart (61:9).

Moroni hadn’t understood the real situation, the true cause of the failure of the central Nephite government at Zarahemla to provide adequate provisions for Nephite troops in the field.  His anger was understandable, but it was also grossly misdirected.

There had, it turns out, been a revolution in Zarahemla.  Pahoran had been driven from the city, a monarchy had been declared, and the rebels had entered into treasonous correspondence with the Lamanites.

In his letter to Pahoran, Moroni had referred to divine inspiration telling him to go to war against those back in Zarahemla who were hindering his effort to defend the Nephite people, whom he quite mistakenly assumed to be the leaders of the government themselves:

Can you think to sit upon your thrones in a state of thoughtless stupor, while your enemies are spreading the work of death around you? Yea, while they are murdering thousands of your brethren . . .

Do ye suppose that God will look upon you as guiltless while ye sit still and behold these things? Behold I say unto you, Nay. Now I would that ye should remember that God has said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also. . . .

Behold, the Lord saith unto me: If those whom ye have appointed your governors do not repent of their sins and iniquities, ye shall go up to battle against them.  (Alma 60:7, 23, 33)

Note how deftly Pahoran corrects Moroni’s misinterpretation of that revelation, and redirects it:

And now, Moroni, I do joy in receiving your epistle, for I was somewhat worried concerning what we should do, whether it should be just in us to go against our brethren.

But ye have said, except they repent the Lord hath commanded you that ye should go against them.  (61:19-20)

This is, to me, a very sophisticated and humanly believable narrative involving two very distinct personalities.