General Comments on Alma 32-35 The missionary labors among the Zoramites stand in sharp contrast to those among the Lamanites in the preceding chapters (cf. ch. 17-27). The Lamanites were a hardened people, but were that way because of honest ignorance and persistent traditions. The missionary efforts among the Lamanites was initially difficult, but ultimately very successful. The missionaries taught basic gospel truths and they were readily understood. The converts received powerful spiritual witnesses and were zealous afterwards, even to the point they would sacrifice their lives rather than shed blood in defending themselves. They willingly separate themselves from the non-believing Lamanites and join with the Nephites. Then a war between the Nephites and Lamanites follows because the apostate Nephites stir up the Lamanites (cf. ch. 28). Here, the target audience is a group of deliberately and arrogantly apostate Nephites. The missionaries use elegant and sophisticated speech when addressing them, and they have little impact on them. The missionaries experience general rejection. Those who do believe the missionaries are those who are largely forced to be humble as a result of the external circumstances of poverty and social rejection. Even then, they do not willingly separate from the non-believers. Only when they are expelled by the non-believing Zoramites do they join the Nephites. After that, the non-believers join with the remaining hardened Lamanites and a war between the Nephites and Lamanites follows because the apostate Nephites stir up the Lamanites (cf. ch. 43). The underlying message is one of pride and the difficulty of overcoming pride even when circumstances dictate humility. The missionary efforts to the Lamanites was the sons of Mosiah and a couple of others spread out among many thousands of Lamanites. Here, we have the sons of Mosiah, Alma, two of Alma's sons, and Amulek among a much smaller population of Zoramites bearing down on them with greater force and they see less success, no miraculous conversions, and less than zealous converts. On a side issue, It isn't mentioned in the present text, but we learn later that part of the reason the Zoramites aren't receptive to the preaching of Alma is because of the conduct of his son Corianton, cf. 39:11. It is safe to assume those who were against Alma (cf. 35:3) would have used this as a means of slandering and faulting him, thereby finding a convenient excuse to ignore his preaching. Something else not mentioned in the present text is that at least some of the missionaries in the party were put in bonds and subjected to stoning, cf. 38:3-4. Another side issue is the size of the population. It must have been large enough for a class system to become established (cf. 31:5), yet small enough to be able to gather together all the people and discreetly poll the individual's feelings (cf. 35:4). I would guess hundreds of people rather than thousands. Also, there appears to be only one Rameumptom and if each worshiper goes up one at a time once a week to recite the prayer, then that necessarily limits it to hundreds. But, some of the population was excluded from the Rameumptom and while they appear to be a minority, it is not clear how large the minority was. Comments on Alma 32 The main focus of this chapter Alma responding to the question "What shall we do?" (Cf. v. 5) regarding the poor being blocked from worshiping in synagogues. His reply is worship of God is not limited to synagogues (v. 9-11), it is good they are blocked from the synagogues because this is encouraging them to be humble (v. 12-16) rather than hardened sign-seekers (v. 17- 20), and he wants them to experiment upon the principle of faith to discover what is true (v. 21-39) and obtain eternal life and the love of God (v. 40-43). v2-3 offer an introductory synopsis of ch. 32-34. v3 "poor in heart", the "heart" represents one's courage or enthusiasm, the seat of one's feelings. If you are poor in heart, then you're unhappy or depressed. v4 "the people upon the hill Onidah", this phrases raises two issues: who were these people, and what is "onidah"? Alma is preaching to a "multitude" when he is approached by those who were of the poor class. As soon as the poor people approach him he gives up entirely on the other multitude. We would assume they were not interested in what Alma had to say otherwise he wouldn't have dropped them in favor of the poor people so quickly. And, in v. 7 it says the poor people were "truly penitent", suggesting the other multitude was not. How then did Alma have a multitude as an audience? Regarding "onidah", we hear of another hill Onidah in 47:5. These two might be the same, but it seems unlikely as this hill is on the edge of Nephite territory in Antionum near a wilderness inhabited by Lamanites (cf. 31:3) where the hill Onidah in 47:5 is located relatively nearby the Lamanite king's palace which would certainly be deep inside established Lamanite territory. This suggests "onidah" is a word that means something pertinent and is not just arbitrary or after someone's name. In 47:5 it says "they fled to Onidah, the place of arms". This suggests "onidah" means "place of arms". The name might be related to the Hebrew "nadan" (cf. Strong's 5084) which means "sheath", as in the sheath of a sword (uniquely appearing in 1 Chron 21:27, the more common term translated to the English "sheath" is the Hebrew "tahar", although it does not appear to differentiate at all between the knife/sword and it's sheath except by context, see Strong's 8593). And, since the Zoramites were living on the edge of Nephite civilization and near to a "wilderness...full of the Lamanites" (cf. 31:3) then it stands to reason they would have an armory. If we follow this seemingly plausible line of speculation we might conclude "Onidah" means "armory" and would therefore have military persons about it. This could explain who the first multitude was whom Alma was talking to, and why they were something of a captive audience with little interest in his message. If there was a standing army, or this was where weapons were manufactured then Alma would have a group of people who weren't really able to leave, but who also weren't particularly interested in what he had to say. So, when presented with the group of poor people, he immediately gave up on these others who were a captive audience with no real interest. Following the line of determining the meaning of "onidah", the term "armoury" appears three times in the KJV, and is translated from different Hebrew terms all three times. The term "nesheq" is translated such in Nehemiah 3:19, but is an ambiguous term as the Strong's entry indicates: 05402 nesheq {neh'-shek} or nesheq {nay'-shek} from 05401; TWOT - 1436a; n m AV - armour 3, weapons 3, battle 1, armed 1, harness 1, armoury 1; 10 1) equipment, weapons, armoury 1a) equipment, weapons 1b) armoury The Hebrew term "otsa" appears in Jeremiah 50:25, the Strong's entry follows: 0214 'owtsar {o-tsaw'} from 0686; TWOT - 154a; n m AV - treasure(s) 61, treasury 10, storehouse(s) 3, cellars 2, armoury 1, garners 1, store 1; 79 1) treasure, storehouse 1a) treasure (gold, silver, etc) 1b) store, supplies of food or drink 1c) treasure-house, treasury 1c1) treasure-house 1c2) storehouse, magazine 1c3) treasury 1c4) magazine of weapons (fig. of God's armoury) 1c5) storehouses (of God for rain, snow, hail, wind, sea) Again, an ambiguous term. And finally, in the Song of Solomon the Hebrew term "talpiyah" makes a unique appearance in Scripture, and as the Strong's entry indicates, its meaning is uncertain: 08530 talpiyah {tal-pee-yaw'} from an unused root meaning to tower; TWOT - 2517; n f AV - armoury 1; 1 1) weapons, armoury, armaments 1a) meaning doubtful The result is there really is no clear Biblical Hebrew term for "armory" in the sense of the English term. Perhaps this "onidah" is a permutation of "nadan" where they equated a place to store weapons with a sheath. However, if this is the case, then it seems odd that they wouldn't have used the more common Hebrew term "tahar" instead of "nadan". Unless they were attempting to evoke some kind of symbolic differentiation between the plainly common "tahar" and the heavenly "nadan", the sheath of angels. But, it wouldn't be hard to see them doing this given their extraordinary hubris over considering themselves to be the elect of God. v5 "we have no place to worship our God", their assumption that worship had to be formalized in a particular setting is what Alma addresses in ch. 33 with his quotation of Zenos. While Alma argues you can worship wherever you like, there are modes of worship that are not appropriate wherever you like (e.g., Temple worship, both ancient and modern). Thus, there was some underlying element of truth to the Zoramite Rameumpton. As the priests, teachers, and leaders of the people were using religion as a means of promoting themselves (cf. 35:3), they were teaching that all worship had to be regulated within the synagogue so as to exert their influence over the people. Constructing a "holy stand" makes it all the easier as then there is a physical location they can exercise control over. v6 Being approached by these people is the answer to Alma's prayer in 31:35. v10-11 Alma makes it clear that worship of God is not limited to formalized liturgy. He comments on this more in his quotation of Zenos in the next chapter. v17 "there are many who do say...show unto us a sign", Alma is probably alluding primarily to Korihor (cf. 34:43-48), who died among them (cf. 30:59). v19 This verse explains why the Lord only reveals things piecemeal, line upon line, cp. D&C 82:3. v23 The statements here appear to be a prod at the priestcraft among the Zoramites. The priests here have set themselves up as the exclusive rulers of the people, cf. 35:3-5. Alma contradicts this system of unrighteous dominion by stating flatly that all are eligible for personal revelation. On the subject of angels imparting words to people, compare 2 Ne. 32:2-3 for Nephi's discussion of receiving the "tongue of angels". v24-27 are somewhat obtuse. Given license to paraphrase for clarification I would reword and rearrange as follows: 24 And now, my beloved brethren, as ye have desired to know of me what ye shall do because ye are afflicted and cast out- (now I do not desire that ye should suppose that I mean to judge you only according to [the fact that you are afflicted and cast out,] 25 For I do not mean that ye all of you have been compelled to humble yourselves; for I verily believe that there are some among you who would humble themselves, let them be in whatsoever circumstances they might). 27 - but behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. 26 Now, as I said concerning faith that it was not a perfect knowledge even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge. 28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed.... In verse 24, Alma starts out a response to their question of "What shall we do?" from v. 9. But, in the second half of the verse through v. 25 he comments on their apparent humility to say that some of them might be humble regardless of their poverty and being socially outcast. In v. 26 he then reminds them of the faith he mentioned earlier in v. 21 and gives them what it is he wants them to do in v. 27, namely the experiment on faith. Unfortunately, the way the text is laid out and the way it flows is superficially confusing. v32 The seed doesn't represent the person, it represents the doctrine (the "word" in v. 34) and behavior associated with that doctrine (the "nourish it" in v. 37 and the labors listed in v. 43). The person exercises their faith to plant the seed and care for it with their faith (cf. v. 36), and if it bears fruit they may eat it and obtain eternal life. v41 draws on Lehi's Tree of Life imagery, cf. 1 Ne. 8. v42 "feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst", cp. Isa. 55:1-2. Copyright © 2001 by S. Kurt Neumiller . All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form or by any means for commercial gain without the express written consent of the author. Digital or printed copies may be freely made and distributed for personal and public non-commercial use.