General Comments on Alma 53-63 In the last lesson on Alma 43-52 we saw the theme of conflict between Moroni and various apostate Nephites. Here, that theme continues with some additional Nephite dissensions occurring in Moroni's absence: ch. 53-55 Moroni versus Ammoron, continued 53:8-9 Nephite dissension in Moroni's absence 61:3-8 King men revolt again in Moroni's absence 62:7-11 Moroni versus King men 62:12-37 Moroni verus Ammoron, finale 62:38 Moroni versus Lamanites Then the book of Alma closes with Moroni's son Moronihah in a conflict with yet another group of apostate Nephites who inspire the Lamanites to war: 63:14-15 Moronihah versus Lamanites One new interesting twist in these chapters is several exchanges of letters which are documented in the text: 54:1 Ammoron to Moroni (?) 54:5-14 Moroni to Ammoron 54:16-24 Ammoron to Moroni ch. 56-58 Helaman to Moroni 59:3 Moroni to Pahoran ch. 60 Moroni to Pahoran ch. 61 Pahoran to Moroni 61:8 Nephite "king" to Lamanite king There are written edicts sent among the Nephites from time to time prior to this (cf. Mosiah 2:8, Mosiah 27:2, Mosiah 29:4), but this is the first we hear of letter writing/epistles in the BofM. Subsequent to this there are several references to letters. One would assume at some point the antiquity of the letters would result in them being lost due to decay if they were not included in the plates. But this wouldn't seem to be the case in the present text as the letters Mormon is quoting, apparently verbatim, are well over 300 years old to him. It doesn't seem likely that letters that old would survive if they weren't in the plates. So, we might speculate the appearance and persistence of letter writing is indicative of some kind of institutional shift in the Nephite culture so that it became commonplace where previously it was uncommon. Another thing suggesting a kind of institutional shift in writing is Helaman's having the engraved scriptural record being written down and sent among all the Nephites (cf. 63:12). This is the first explicit mention of widespread public access to the Scriptures. There are implicit statements prior to this (cf. Jacob 7:23, Alma 13:20, Alma 14:1, Alma 14:8, Alma 17:2, Alma 33:3), but it is never clear how widespread or public the access was to the written scriptures. 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.