Chapter 18
King Lamoni supposes
that Ammon is the Great Spirit—Ammon teaches the king of the creation, of God's
dealings with men, and of the redemption that comes through Christ—Lamoni
believes and falls to the earth as if dead. About 90 B.C.
1 AND it came to pass
that king Lamoni caused that his servants should stand forth and testify to all
the things which they had seen concerning the matter.
2 And when they had
all testified to the things which they had seen, and he had learned of the
faithfulness of Ammon in preserving his flocks, and also of his great power in
contending against those who sought to slay him, he was astonished exceedingly,
and said: Surely, this is more than a man.
Behold, is not this the Great Spirit who doth send such great punishments
upon this people, because of their murders?
3 And they answered
the king, and said: Whether he be the Great Spirit or a man, we know not; but
this much we do know, that he cannot be slain by the enemies of the king;
neither can they scatter the king's flocks when he is with us, because of his
expertness and great strength; therefore, we know that he is a friend to the
king. And now, O king, we do not believe
that a man has such great power, for we know he cannot be slain.
4 And now, when the
king heard these words, he said unto them: Now I know that it is the Great
Spirit; and he has come down at this time to preserve your lives, that I might
not slay you as I did your brethren. Now
this is the Great Spirit of whom our fathers have spoken.
5 Now this was the tradition
of Lamoni, which he had received from his father, that there was a Great
Spirit. Notwithstanding they believed in
a Great Spirit they supposed that whatsoever they did was right; nevertheless,
Lamoni began to fear exceedingly, with fear lest he had done wrong in slaying
his servants;
6 For he had slain
many of them because their brethren had scattered their flocks at the place of
water; and thus, because they had had their flocks scattered they were slain.
7 Now it was the
practice of these Lamanites to stand by the waters of Sebus to scatter the
flocks of the people, that thereby they might drive away many that were
scattered unto their own land, it being a practice of plunder among them.
8 And it came to pass
that king Lamoni inquired of his servants, saying: Where is this man that has
such great power?
9 And they said unto
him: Behold, he is feeding thy horses.
Now the king had commanded his servants, previous to the time of the
watering of their flocks, that they should prepare his horses and chariots, and
conduct him forth to the land of Nephi; for there had been a great feast
appointed at the land of Nephi, by the father of Lamoni, who was king over all
the land.
10 Now when king
Lamoni heard that Ammon was preparing his horses and his chariots he was more
astonished, because of the faithfulness of Ammon, saying: Surely there has not
been any servant among all my servants that has been so faithful as this man;
for even he doth remember all my commandments to execute them.
Alma 18:1-10
The servants of Lamoni went before him and recounted what
had happened. Lamoni was amazed. Alma, a Nephite, was a loyal servant of the
Lamanite king. He wondered aloud if he
was the Great Spirit. He feared he had
been sent to punish them because the king had killed servants who lost parts of
his flocks.
The servants replied they had no idea if he was the Great
Spirit or not. All they know is he
cannot be killed by their enemies and they can’t scatter the king’s flocks
because of his strength.[1] They emphasize he is a friend of the king and
has great power and cannot be slain.
The words of his servants convinced Lamoni Ammon was the
Great Spirit. He had come to preserve
the lives of the servants.[2]
Though the Lamanite tradition believed there was a Great
Spirit, the believed whatever they did was right. Lamoni was beginning to doubt this, fearing
his treatment of his servants was wrong.
Many servants had been killed because flocks had been scattered.
The servants had been killed because of the “games” played
by the Lamanite gang, scattering flocks.
“If ever there was an authentic piece of Bedouin mischief that is it.
And of course it led to fights and reprisals in the best desert manner (Alma
18:6). Among others these rascals scattered the flocks of their own king and
yet continued active in the social and political life of the community—how weak
and poorly organized a government, and how typical of the East! (Alma 17:26—27;
19:21).”[3]
Lamoni next asked where is Ammon? He was told he was feeding
his horses.
What about horses in the Book of Mormon? In high school, I took German classes. One year, we were given Reader’s Digest magazine in German.
We were assigned to translate articles into English. I joked with Mr. Naylor, my teacher, I’d just
copy an article in the German issue from an English issue. He said we could if we wanted to and left it
at that. I wasn’t’ serious about doing
it, so I picked an article about the late astronaut Alan Shepherd, which I had
read in the English issue. I quickly
learned that, while the actual content was the same, when I translated the
article, it was not exactly like it was in English.
This can be applied to the Book of Mormon. What was meant when horses were
mentioned? Did they mean the animal we
think of as a horse? We don’t know.
We do have an example, however. When the Greeks arrived in Egypt, they saw
strange animals in the Nile. They called
them river horses. “hippopotamus (n.) 1560s, from Late Latin hippopotamus, from Greek hippopotamus "riverhorse"
(earlier ho hippos ho potamios "the horse of the
river"), from hippos "horse" (see equine)
+ potamos "river, rushing water" (see potamo-).
Replaced Middle English ypotame (c. 1300), which is from the
same source but via Old French. Glossed in Old English as sæhengest.”[4]
Never in my wildest imagination would I consider a
hippopotamus anything like a horse. The
fact is we have no idea what was meant by horses in the Book of Mormon. Based on the Greek experience, it is not too farfetched
to believe the word for horse referred to a different animal.
[T]he Book of Mormon claims only
that horses were known to some New World peoples before the time of Christ in
certain limited regions of the New World. Thus we need not conclude from the
text that horses were universally known in the Americas throughout pre-Columbian
history. Moreover, the Book of Mormon never says that horses were ridden or
used in battle, although some passages suggest that at times they may have been
used by the elite as a draft animal (see, for example, Alma 18:9; 3 Nephi
3:22).
Lamoni’s father, who was king over all the land, was having
a great feast. Ammon was getting things
ready for his travels to the feast. He was surprised by Ammon’s faithfulness at
fulfilling his commands.
[1] “But
Ammon stood forth and began to cast stones at them with his sling; yea, with
mighty power he did sling stones amongst them; and thus he slew a certain
number of them insomuch that they began to be astonished at his power;
nevertheless they were angry because of the slain of their brethren, and they
were determined that he should fall; therefore, seeing that they could not hit
him with their stones, they came forth with clubs to slay him” (Alma 17:36).
[2] “Now
the servants of the king began to murmur, saying: Now the king will slay us, as
he has our brethren because their flocks were scattered by the wickedness of
these men. And they began to weep
exceedingly, saying: Behold, our flocks are scattered already” (Alma 17:28).
[3] An
Approach to the Book of Mormon – Lehi in the Desert, Hugh Nibley, Maxwell
Institute, accessed May 18, 2015.
[4] http://www.etymonline.com/,
entry “hippopotamus,”
accessed May 18, 2015.
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