Chapter 17
Alma believes and writes the words of Abinadi—Abinadi suffers death by fire—He prophesies disease and death by fire upon his murderers. About 148 B.C.
1 AND now it came to pass that when Abinadi had finished these sayings, that the king commanded that the priests should take him and cause that he should be put to death.
Mosiah 17:1 (Emphasis mine)
After Abinadi finished his words, the King was not very happy. In fact, he was very upset for many reasons. He decided that Abinadi must die. He had called the King wicked and evil. He said that he and his priests had led the people to live unrighteous lives.
Hugh Nibley writes:
"He really pours it on here. After Abinadi gave his sermon, what was the reaction? 'The king commanded that the priests should take him and cause that he should be put to death.' And it's very obvious why. After the sermon in chapters 15 and 16, what else was there left for the king to do? The contrast between what I am doing and what I could be doing is simply intolerable—I can't face it. I must get rid of the one, or get rid of the other. You can't share them ... He [King Noah] heard the story, and he knew it was true, but it was intolerable. He couldn't face it. The only thing to do was get the man out of sight and out of mind. So take him away and put him to death" (Emphasis mine)
One teaching of Abinadi also angered King and priests. Hugh Nibley writes:
" 'And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand [this is something you have to understand] that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people." That is a hard one to take; that's why they would always start stoning the prophets, etc. That's why they said he was worthy of death. Remember, this is the only crime they could charge against him: he said that God himself would come down among them. This was very disturbing." (Emphasis mine)
Abinadi may well have known that death was his fate. John Tvedtnes wrote:
"When Abinadi testified before King Noah and his priests, they 'attempted to lay their hands on him' (Mosiah 13:2), but he warned them, 'Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver' (Mosiah 13:3). Knowing that 'the Spirit of the Lord was upon him,' 'the people of king Noah durst not lay their hands on him' (Mosiah 13:5), and Abinadi went on to tell them about the coming of the Messiah. 'I finish my message,' he declared, 'and then it matters not whither I go, if it so be that I am saved' (Mosiah 13:9). Only after he had delivered the words of the Lord were they able to slay him (Mosiah 17:1)." (Emphasis mine)
2 But there was one among them whose name was Alma, he also being a descendant of Nephi. And he was a young man, and he believed the words which Abinadi had spoken, for he knew concerning the iniquity which Abinadi had testified against them; therefore he began to plead with the king that he would not be angry with Abinadi, but suffer that he might depart in peace.
3 But the king was more wroth, and caused that Alma should be cast out from among them, and sent his servants after him that they might slay him.
4 But he fled from before them and hid himself that they found him not. And he being concealed for many days did write all the words which Abinadi had spoken.
3 But the king was more wroth, and caused that Alma should be cast out from among them, and sent his servants after him that they might slay him.
4 But he fled from before them and hid himself that they found him not. And he being concealed for many days did write all the words which Abinadi had spoken.
Mosiah 17:2-4 (Emphasis mine)
Abinadi was not a failure. His preaching touched one priest, a young man named Alma(1). Alma realized the truth of Abinadi's words and plead to the King that he would spare his life and let him go. All Alma(1) managed to do was make the King more angry, cast him out, and sent his servants to kill him.
Alma(1) escaped and hid from them. During the time he was in hiding, he wrote down the words of Abinadi. If it weren't for Alma(1), we would not have the words of Abinadi.
Who was Alma(1)? L. Gary Lambert tells us:
"Alma(1) (c. 174—92 B.C.) was the first of two Almas in the Book of Mormon. He was a descendant of Nephi(1), son of Lehi, and was the young priest in the court of king Noah who attempted a peaceful release of the prophet Abinadi. For that action, Alma incurred royal vengeance, banishment, and threats upon his life. He had been impressed by Abinadi's accusations of immorality and abuses within the government and society and by his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mosiah 17:2). Subsequently forced underground, Alma wrote out Abinadi's teachings, then shared them with others, attracting sufficient adherents—450—to organize a society of believers, or a church." (Emphasis mine)
Hugh Nibley
" 'But there was one among them whose name was Alma,' and there's a very important thing about Alma. You'll notice his situation and what kind of fellow he was. What was Alma's situation? It goes out of the way to tell us why he was in this situation. He was a direct descendant of Nephi. That meant he had the priesthood, but he wasn't among those—the old guard—that had been kicked out by Noah at an earlier time. Remember, Noah cleaned out Zeniff's priests that he had appointed. And as we read back here in Mosiah 11:5, he got rid of them. 'For he put down all the priests that had been consecrated by his father [so Alma hadn't been consecrated by Zeniff], and he consecrated new ones in their stead.' And Alma was apparently one of those new ones. Why? Well, in the first place he was young. It says that he was a young man. He hadn't been in that old group at all. In the second place, he was in the highest aristocracy. Remember, the first Nephi had been the king, so he was the nearest thing you would get to royal blood. He couldn't avoid the job. He would naturally be appointed by the king and also have the king's ear because he was in high respect, of course. And he was also honest, and he knew [Abinadi] was telling the truth. He knew too much, as a matter of fact. That's why the king had to get rid of him now. ... Of course, he interceded for Abinadi. He had the ear of the king and he said, well, what about it? Let's let him go. The least we can do is let him go in peace. The king wouldn't have that, and so now he wanted to get rid of Alma himself. To agree to this [Alma's exhortation] would be an admission of his guilt. He couldn't afford to do that, so he had to get rid of Alma, too. He was a troublemaker [for the king], and he knew too much, as we learn in verse 2.
"Then what happened? He 'sent his servants after him that they might slay him' so that nobody would know about it. See, that's the way he did things, not in the open. This Noah was quite a character, and yet he turns out to be a rather sympathetic character, and that's surprising, isn't it? 'But he [Alma] fled from before them [Alma was up to that—he knew what was going to happen, so he got out of the way in time; he was no fool to stay around] and hid himself that they found him not. And he being concealed for many days did write all the words which Abinadi had spoken.' Remember, those were scripture. Abinadi was heavy with scripture. He taunted the priests of Noah for teaching the scripture and not knowing it, not understanding it, and not following it." (Emphasis mine)
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