Alma 9-12 - Showdown with Zeezrom

Zeezrom is another bad guy turned good by the power of God. His takedown and eventual conversion is unique in the Book of Mormon in that Mormon spends a significant amount of precious space to set the stage. This set up is telling for what it doesn’t say as well as for what it does say. It’s here we get an explanation of what the Nephite currency system was and how their legal system worked.

I emphasize the past tense because they were different from Mormon’s time too. The monetary system he describes is one backed by grain instead of a fiat system based upon precious metals — like ours. The article linked below gives a quick look at what works as a currency. It’s interesting that grain is better than gold. It’s kind of a surprise, don’t you think, that an unschooled farm boy would come up with something like that? But I digress.

The other thing Mormon spends time on is defining how their legal and tort system works. He makes the cynical observation that the lawyers and judges stirred up the people to keep themselves employed. It's observations like that which show me, it really was written for our day. Who'd of thought government officials were capable of injuring others for their own self interests?

Against this cultural context, he then introduces us to Zeezrom. Zeezrom was an opportunist wanting to make some money off of these two religious wacko’s (my guess at his estimation of them). He veils his attempt in a series of questions and distortions of Amulek’s answers. But, blessed with common sense and the Spirit, Amulek sees through them and exposes him to the people for what he was.

I also found it interesting that Amulek, presumably because he wasn’t as experienced as Alma, gets into a shouting match with the people. Yet he handled Zeezrom and when he’d silenced him, Alma stepped in and finished him off. In the end, Zeezrom is shaking with the guilt of what he’s done. It’s enlightening that he will come to be one of the go-to missionaries Alma calls upon when they try to save the Zoramites.

All in all, a lot of cool stuff going on… not to mention the great dissertation on the Savior and the plan of salvation.

Article on currencies.

Alma 2-4 - An Observation of the Nephites

In one of my earlier posts, I referred to the end of an order with King Mosiah II setting up judges to rule the Nephites after his death. This post comments on another change in the evolution of the Nephite government. In this passage, Alma renounces the judgeship to focus upon his role as High Priest over the church. With few exceptions, the Nephite religious and political leaders are not the same person. The aristocratic nature of the society manifests it self in that all the leaders come from the same group of people.

He did this because of a crisis he faced: the general membership of the church was becoming more wicked than the larger society they lived within. It’s things like this which are, in my opinion, the hallmarks of an actual historical narrative. What author would have as part of his story, the “good guys” becoming more wicked than the other players? It’s a fairly sophisticated plot ploy. Ol’Joe doesn’t mention a peep about it tho’ which strengthens the case the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be, the history of an ancient people.

This is a book full of the messiness we humans are prone to cause. The Nephites are on display for us to critique and comment on. It gives more weight to the ominous admonition at the end of the book where Moroni asks that we be more wise than they were. In short, it is a history of humans and of God’s dealings with them.