User:Ghosts of Europa/sandbox/Ammonihah

Ammonihah (/ˌæməˈnaɪhɑː/) is a city mentioned in the Book of Mormon described as governed by lawyers and judges. When the Book of Mormon prophet Alma visits Ammonihah as part of a preaching tour, the city becomes the setting of "one of the most disturbing episodes" of the text in which Ammonihah's governing elite imprison him, exile any men converted by his preaching, and kill women and children associated with his mission by fire.

The narrative set in Ammonihah is intertextual with the Old and New Testaments. Literary and theological scholarship treat the Ammonihah story as an exploration of suffering and a turning point in the Book of Mormon's use of the phrase "lake of fire and brimstone" as a metaphor for hell.

A among the first published illustrations of Book of Mormon, Ammonihah is depicted in two woodblock prints by John Held Sr. commissioned for George Reynolds's 1888 The Story of the Book of Mormon.

Narrative

In "the tenth year of the reign of the judges", Alma has stepped down as the chief judge of the Nephites to become an itinerant preacher. When he arrives at the city of Ammonihah to preach, its citizens mock him and his church. He is turned away because of his earlier role in executing Nehor, the founder of a rival church. Alma is visited by an angel, who tells him to return to the city. An angel also tells Amulek, a resident of Ammonihah, to assist him.

The town's lawyers and judges confront Alma and Amulek, who they believe undermine its political order. Zeezrom, a lawyer, offers Amulek a bribe to deny the existence of God, but Amulek refuses. Instead, Alma and Amulek proclaim that Jesus will soon "redeem his people" and raise the dead, who will be "arraigned before the bar" of God's judgment. They warn that those who do not repent of their sins will experience "spiritual death", and their "torments shall be as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever".

Some of Ammonihah's residents listen and repent. They are driven out of the city, and their wives and children are arrested and burned to death. Amulek and Alma are made to watch them suffer and die; Ammonihah's chief judge mockingly asks them, "After what ye have seen, will ye preach again unto this people, that they shall be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone?" Amulek suggests they intervene using the power of God, but Alma tells him that "The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand".

Alma and Amulek are imprisoned. They are miraculously saved by an earthquake that kills their captors and destroys the prison walls. They leave Ammonihah and reunite with other survivors in a place called Sidom. There, they re-encounter Zeezrom, who has assumed Alma and Amulek were dead, considered himself responsible, and developed a severe fever. Alma miraculously heals him, then baptizes him after he proclaims his newfound belief in Jesus' redemption. Alma also "administers unto" Amulek, who has been left without family or possessions.

Months later, as part of a larger war, Lamanites destroy Ammonihah and kill its remaining residents. Its ruins are called the "Desolation of Nehors". Within the next ten years, the city is rebuilt and surrounded by a defensive dirt wall, where it hosts an army under the command of Moroni.

See also

• Christian martyr
• Outline of the Book of Mormon
• Problem of evil

Sources

• Belnap, Dan (2014). "'And it came to pass…': The Sociopolitical Events in the Book of Mormon Leading to the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges". Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 23: 101–139. doi:10.5406/jbookmormstud2.23.2014.0101. ISSN 2374-4766.
• Bushman, Richard Lyman (2005). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4270-8.
• Bushman, Richard Lyman (2008). Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Vol. 183. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531030-6.
• Carmack, Noel A. (2008). "'A Picturesque and Dramatic History': George Reynolds's Story of the Book of Mormon". Brigham Young University Studies. 47 (2): 115–141. ISSN 0007-0106. JSTOR 43044637.
• Clark, John L. (2002). "Painting Out the Messiah: The Theologies of Dissidents". Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 11: 16–27, 107–8. doi:10.5406/jbookmormstud.11.1.0016. eISSN 2168-3158. ISSN 1065-9366.
• Gardner, Brant A. (2007). Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon. Vol. 4, Alma. Greg Kofford Books. ISBN 978-1-58958-044-2.
• Gee, John (2023). "Book of Mormon Names: Beyond Etymology". In Oaks, Dallin D.; Baltes, Paul; Minson, Kent (eds.). Perspectives on Latter-day Saint Names and Naming: Names, Identity, and Belief. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003325000. ISBN 9781032350431.
• Hardy, Grant (2010). Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199745449.
• Shipps, Jan (1985). Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01159-7.
• Spencer, Joseph M. (2017). "The Structure of the Book of Alma". Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 26: 273–283. doi:10.18809/jbms.2017.0116.
• Swift, Charles (2012). "When Less Is More: The Reticent Narrator in the Story of Alma and Amulek". Religious Educator. 13 (1): 89–101.
• Thomas, John Christopher (2016). A Pentecostal Reads the Book of Mormon: A Literary and Theological Introduction. CPT Press. ISBN 9781935931553.
• Turley, Kylie Nielson (2019). "Alma's Hell: Repentance, Consequence, and the Lake of Fire and Brimstone". Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 28: 1–41. doi:10.5406/jbookmormstud2.28.2019.0001.
• Vogel, Dan (2004). Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet. Signature Books. ISBN 978-1-56085-179-0.

External links

• Chapter 24 of The Story of the Book of Mormon which depicts Ammonihah in prose and with John Held Sr.'s accompanying prints, on the Internet Archive
• Alma 8, the chapter of Ammonihah's first appearance in the Book of Mormon, on Wikisource