“The Complexity and Consistency in the Accounts of Alma’s Conversion”©

101 Reasons Why I Believe Joseph Smith Was a Prophet of God: 

Evidence Sixty-Three:

 “The Complexity and Consistency in the Accounts of Alma’s Conversion”© 
Revised 18 January 2020

The complexity of the Book of Mormon is an idea that has grown in importance with me as I continue to study the gospel in my retirement. It is one of the evidences of the divine origin of the book and of Joseph Smith’s calling as a prophet of God. One can approach the complexity of the Book of Mormon in many different ways, and I hope to share more as we go along. Today’s column is devoted to a discussion of the three separate stories of Alma’s conversion. The Prophet Joseph is often criticized because of differences in his several accounts of the First Vision. There are three versions of Paul’s conversion in the New Testament. It is helpful to study these renditions, not only for their differences, but for the insights which may be gained as one studies and gives thoughtful analysis to them as professor Jack Welch of BYU law school does below with Alma’s thrice telling of his conversion.

Not all readers are aware that the Book of Mormon contains three accounts of the conversion of Alma the Younger.  Mosiah 27:8-37 gives a contemporary account of how Alma had agitated against the church of God and of his extraordinary conversion. In Alma 36:4-26 and 38:6-8, Alma twice recounts his conversion story as he blesses his sons Helaman and Shiblon. Interesting results come from a careful comparison of these three texts.

It is apparent that these three accounts all originated from the same man. For example, in Mosiah 27, Alma used many distinctive phrases as he described his conversion. He said, “The Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God. My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more” (Mosiah 27:28-29). The emphasized terms here are just a few that could be mentioned.

Years later, Alma again used these same phrases.  In Alma 36 he said, “God did rack my soul” (Alma 36:14) “with eternal torment” (Alma 36:12). “I cried ... have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness” (Alma 36:18). “I could remember my pains no more” (Alma 36:19). “What marvelous light” (Alma 36;20).  “I have been born of God” (Alma 36:23).

Likewise, Mosiah 27:11 describes the voice of the angel as “a voice of thunder, which caused the earth to shake upon which they stood,” while Alma 36:7 states: “He spake unto us, as it were the voice of thunder, and the whole earth did tremble beneath our feet.” See also Alma 38:7; compare alma 29:1: “O that I were an angel ... and [could] speak ... with a voice to shake the earth.”

There are many other such phrases that run in parallel, but not identically, through these three accounts. The repetitions show that a single person was the author of all three and suggest that Alma had told his story many times and had grown accustomed to using these characteristic words and phrases. 

Furthermore, it is impressive that the specific details in the accounts remain accurately consistent. For example, all five of those present feel to the earth before the angel, but only Alma was told to “arise” (Mosiah 27:12-13; Alma 36:7-8) and to “remember the captivity of thy fathers” (Mosiah 27:16; Alma 36:2, 28-29), precisely the same in both accounts.

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Alma 36 and 38, however, show signs of thoughtful reflection, of years of thinking about his momentous conversion. For instance, in the later accounts Alma has placed his words into the context of his religious tradition.  Instead of thinking only about the deliverance of his father from the land of Helam (as the angel mentions in Mosiah 27:16), Alma now speaks of older parallels of the deliverance of Lehi from Jerusalem and, beyond that, of the Israelites from Egypt (see Alma 36:28-29).  And in Alma 36:22, Alma has incorporated twenty-one words that are quoted verbatim from the vision of Lehi (see 1 Nephi 1:8). He has also applied his spiritual experience to his reader’s daily religious practice, drawing lessons about trusting in the Lord throughout one’s trials, troubles, and afflictions (see Alma 36:3, 27; 38:5), and about living a moral, righteous life (see Alma 38:9-15).

To coincide with this thoughtful development, Alma’s accounts have evolved structurally as well. The abrupt antithetical parallelisms in Mosiah 27:29-30 (“I was X, but now I am Y,” repeated four times) have been rearranged into one masterfully crafted chiastic composition in Alma 36:1-30. It centers on the turning point of Alma’s life, which was when he called upon Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and groups the negative attributes from Mosiah 27:29-30 into the first half of the chiasm and their positive opposites into the second half.

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The three accounts also consistently reflect different vantage points in Alma’s life.  In Mosiah 27, Alma is a young man, spontaneously overwhelmed by the power of the angel and terrified by the prospect of the day of judgment (see Mosiah 27:31). Later in Alma’s life, it is clear that the older man has faithfully and successfully served his Lord and his people all the rest of his days (see Alma 36:24-26) so that he now emphasizes his longing to be present with God (see Alma 36:22).

Despite the fact that Mosiah 27 is separated from the accounts in Alma 36 and 38 by the many words, events, sermons, conflicts and distractions reported in the intervening one hundred pages of printed text, these three accounts still profoundly bear the unmistakable imprints of a single distinctive person, who throughout his adult lifetime had lived with, thought about, matured through, and insightfully taught by means of his powerful and beautiful conversion story.(1)

Professor Welch’s tight analysis is surfeited with at least half a dozen major and very critical insights derived from this story, all of which point to an unusual integration of the three versions, highlighting its complexity as he does so. Welch points out the similar yet unique use of language in each reiteration by Alma, which raises interesting questions about Joseph Smith’s role in producing the Book of Mormon. Are we to believe that Joseph Smith made up the Book of Mormon and was skillful enough to go back to Alma’s earlier accounts to make sure he used the same phrases and concepts in subsequent reiterations of the story? As smart as I think Joseph Smith was, when I consider that the book was produced over a ninety-day period in one manuscript essentially clean of any evidence of reworking, rewriting, proof reading, or assistance from other previously written sources, then the complexity and intricacy of this one story told three times as laid before us by professor Welch, taxes my credulity about Joseph Smith’s alleged authorship. Joseph’s own explanation of translating “by the gift and power of God” is much easier for me to believe. And when this one example is added to virtually scores, hundreds, and even thousands of additional examples of the complexity and consistency of the Book of Mormon the possibility that Joseph Smith wrote it by himself in the manner just described, drops infinitesimally close to zero. 

Another critical insight for me is that the stories in Mosiah 27, Alma 36, and 39 are separated by 100 pages of text yet remain consistent while at the same time Welch shows they evolve structurally and conceptually as Alma more clearly sees the importance and meaning of his conversion over the years. Not only to himself personally, but for its lessons for his sons and the church. Wouldn’t you agree this is a pretty subtle thing for twenty-five-year-old Joseph Smith to include--one which took more than a century and a half before professor Welch brought it to our attention?

In conclusion, I should also note an interesting study by S. Kent Brown. Unlike Welch’s which analyzes the three conversions stories of Alma, Brown looks at elements of the conversion story which show up in seven of Alma’s discourses scattered throughout the book of Alma.(2)  He found that “Alma’s memory of that remarkable ordeal remained with him to the point that all his sermons are infused with allusions to it.”(3) He lists six elements of the conversion story, some of which are mentioned or alluded to in Alma’s sermons. They are: 1) “emphasis on God’s deliverance of his people”; 2 ) “emphasis on God’s deliverance of the individual soul from the bondage of sin”; 3) a “set of expressions which describe Alma’s own troubled and sinful state before he received forgiveness of sins”; 4) “indescribable joy and enlightenment at receiving forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ atonement”; 5) “persistent description of his experience as being ‘born of God,’ a phrased distinctive to Alma among Book of Mormon authors;” 6) “his actions as a preacher of salvation, which followed his extraordinary experience, bringing others to taste ‘as I have tasted’ and to see ‘eye to eye as I have seen.’”(4) Even so, according to Brown, “Perhaps the element most often alluded to is the appearance of the angel of the Lord.”(5)

Together the studies of Welch and Brown are complimentary, both highlighting the phenomenal conversion story of Alma, and at the same time adding depth and breadth to our understanding of the complexity and consistency of the Book of Mormon.

I say, thank God for Joseph Smith.

Let’s think together again soon.

Notes:  

1.  John W. Welch, Reexploring the Book of Mormon: The F.A.R.M.S. Updates.  Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992,150-153, emphasis in original.

2.  S. Kent Brown, “Alma’s Conversion: Reminiscences in His Sermons,” in From Jerusalem to Zarahemla: Literary and Historical Studies of the Book of Mormon, 113-27.  Religious Studies Center Specialized Monograph Series 13.  Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1998.

3.  Brown, “Alma’s Conversion,” 114. The only exceptions were Alma’s long prayer in Alma 31:26-35 and his final words to Helaman in Al. 45:2-14.

4.  Ibid, 114-15.

5.  Ibid, 126.