When I read that, I remembered a post I made way back about the concept of Abinadi playing the role of doctrinal mentor to Alma-1, and Alma-1 playing the role of doctrinal mentor to Alma-2. That was after I noticed that these three men were the only ones in the entire Book of Mormon to specifically teach about the "first resurrection."
So when I read Stisa's post, I decided to look up where the other 7 uses of "redeem his people" occur in the Book of Mormon. The results surprised me, even though they confirm my hypothesis. Below you'll find an index of every occurrence of "redeem/redeemed his people, followed by the name of the person who is speaking:
Twelve Examples by Speaker
- Mosiah 13:33, Abinadi
- Mosiah 15:1, Abinadi
- Mosiah 15:11, Abinadi
- Mosiah 15:18, Abinadi
- Mosiah 16:4, Abinadi
- Mosiah 18:20, Alma-1
- Alma 5:21, Alma-2
- Alma 5:27, Alma-2
- Alma 6:8, Mormon (about Alma-2...see below)
- Alma 11:40, Amulek
- Alma 33:22, Alma-2
- Helaman 5:10, Helaman-2 (quoting Amulek's words to Zeezrom...see below)
More about the Example from Alma 6
Mormon wrote these words, clearly documenting what Alma-2 was teaching:
8 And Alma went and began to declare the word of God unto the church which was established in the valley of Gideon, according to the revelation of the truth of the word which had been spoken by his fathers, and according to the spirit of prophecy which was in him, according to the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who should come to redeem his people from their sins, and the holy order by which he was called. And thus it is written. Amen. (Alma 6)
More about the Example from Helaman 5
It is true that Helaman wrote these words, but he is very specifically referencing Amulek in Alma 11:
10 And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins. (Helaman 5)
Conclusions
Once again, we see a high degree of internal consistency. If you had asked me prior to reading Stisa's post referenced above how many times the words "redeem/redeemed his people" showed up in the Book of Mormon, I would have guessed a few dozen or maybe more. I would have guessed that many authors used this phrase. Not so. It seems that there is a chain of possession, so to speak, of the use of this phrase.
What to make about the "outlier" in Alma 11, when Amulek uses the phrase? I don't consider it an outlier at all. Rather, it seems natural from the narrative of the Book of Alma that Amulek would have considered Alma-2 his doctrinal mentor.
In a similar vein, it seems that Helaman-2 was a careful student of the words of many figures on the large and small plates of Nephi, including Amulek. This makes sense, since he was a keeper of those records. See Helaman 5 for additional examples.
Sometimes I find a pattern in the Book of Mormon and the underlying deeper meaning is immediately apparent to me. (See this series of posts, for example.) Other times, including this example, I notice a pattern but I don't really understand what the deeper meaning is. I clearly have much more to learn. One thing I can definitely say is that the text of the Book of Mormon has been carefully prepared by someone with a lot of time and a lot of notes, and it deserves our careful attention.
