ALMA 36:6-10
Is there a discrepancy between Alma
36:10 and Mosiah 27:23?
Some readers of the Book of Mormon
have claimed there is a discrepancy in the accounts of the conversion of Alma
as recorded in Mosiah 27:23 and Alma 36:10. It is true that one account
mentions "two days and two nights" and the other says "three
days and three nights," but there is no apparent discrepancy because they
are not referring to exactly the same thing. In the account in the book of
Mosiah the time element clearly refers to the period of fasting by the priests;
no exact length of time is indicated for Alma's unconscious state. Note the
major details of the account: After Alma was confronted by an angel and
realized the enormity of his sins, he fell to the earth almost as if dead. Then
he was carried to his father in this helpless condition. The father of Alma
then called in the priests of the church and "after they had fasted and
prayed for the space of two days and two nights, the limbs of Alma received
their strength, and he stood up." (Mosiah 27:22-23. Italics added.) In the
account in the book of Alma, however, the term "three days and three
nights" clearly refers to the total time Alma could not open his mouth nor
use his limbs. (Alma 36:10.) (Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of
the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976], 217-18)