Mosiah 25 All

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 25

Questions

• Verses 1-3: To which groups do “people of Nephi” and “people of Zarahemla” refer? Why is it important for us to know that the Nephites were a minority, a smaller group than the people of Zarahemla, and that the two groups together were much smaller than the Lamanites? What might account for those relative differences in size?

• Verses 5-11: How do you account for the see-saw of emotions that we see here?

• Verses 5-6: King Mosiah here reads to the people. Later in the chapter, Alma -- the priest and prophet -- preaches to and exorts the same people. Why does Mosiah read while Alma's presentation is purely oral? Is there some connection here between Mosiah's status as a "political" leader and Alma's status as a "religious" leader?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 1

This story opens with an overtly political situation: "king Mosiah caused that all the people should be gathered together." The splits and rejoinings that have characterized the whole book of Mosiah are finally coming to their climax, as all the Nephites are together again, but now in a much more complicated political situation. The gathering is the first gathering of all the Nephites as such, since those who left for the land of Nephi left even before Benjamin's final speech. This gathering seems meant to echo Benjamin's speech in some ways, though it is clearly also intended to go beyond it. The political shifts that characterize especially Mosiah 29 find their official beginnings in this very assembly.

Verse 5

Beginning here and continuing through v. 6, King Mosiah begins reading the records of the various Nephite groups. The figure of Mosiah in this chapter seems to be paired with the figure of Alma. One is king and one is something like a priest or prophet. Interestingly, Alma also addresses the people beginning in v. 15 of the chapter, but in contrast to Mosiah he does not read but rather he is preaches (v. 15) and exhorts (v.16). There is some sense in which the "political" discourse of Mosiah is a written discourse, while the "religious" discourse of Alma is oral. However, the categories of political and religious must be treated with some skepticism for as we see in the following verses, Mosiah's "political" message is couched in terms of "religious" stories, and Alma's "religious" message has a "political" aspect to it, as in v. 17 where King Limhi is converted "and all his people were desirous that they might be baptized as well."

Related links

• Click here for a chronology of Mosiah and Alma (taken from James E. Faulconer's Sunday School lesson; credit for the first part of the chronology is given to Arthur Bassett).

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 25

Questions

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Related links

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The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 25

Questions

• v. 15: It speaks here of "repentance and faith" but usually we reverse the order of those two words and say "faith and repentence." Why the unusual word order in this verse?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 25

Questions

• v. 19: (See also Mosiah 26:8.) How can a king decide who has authority over the Church? What does your answer to that question tell us about Mosiah and Alma’s society?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verses 18-19: There is an interesting interplay of authority between these two verses. In verse 18, Alma's activity is explicitly compared to his actions at the Waters of Mormon. There his authority seems to have come from the power of the spirit descending upon him. (Although he was a priest of Noah, previously.) Note also that in this verse church is singular, and modified by God. In verse 19, the authority comes not from the spirit or some other explicitly divine source, but rather from the king and it is he that grants the power to ordain priests and teachers. Notice also that in this verse we have "churches" plural and they are unmodified by any other sobriquet. Part of what seems to be going on in these verses is the reconcilliation of the potentially competing authorities of Alma and Mosiah. One might read these verses as suggesting a kind of doctrine of two churches, one spiritual, indivisible, and ultimately responsible to God through his prophet, and the other, plural, earthly, and ultimately responsible to the community through its king.

Verses 20: This verses seems to begin reconciliation of the constrast created in verses 18 and 19. Note that the action taken by the king in verse 19 is explained in practical, logistical terms. The verses that follow (v.21-24), however, affirm the transcendent aspect of "the church of God" (v.21).

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The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 25

Questions

• v. 22: What is the point of the remark that the bodies of believers were called churches?

• v. 22: Notice also that "the church of God" is identified with the oral preaching of Alma in verse 15, rather than the written records of Mosiah earlier in the chapter. Why do you think this is?

• v. 23: What is the significance, if any, that there were seven churches in the land of Zarahemla?

• vv. 23-24: In verse 23 those who join the church are desirous of taking on them the name of Christ, but in the next verse they are named the people of God. Is there any significance to these contrasting names?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

One way of reading these verses is to see them as the reconciliation of the tension between the singular "church of God" created by Alma in v. 18 and the plural "churches" authorized by King Mosiah in v. 19. In verse 20-21, Mosiah's action is explained in practical terms. Notice, however, that verse 21 ends with a reference not to the authority of Mosiah, but of Alma ("the word according as it was delivered to him by the mouth of Alma"). Verse 22 affirms the unity of the churches in "all one church, yea even the church of God."

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