"Angry Because of the Word," Alma 35:1-4

Alma 35:1-4

I brought to consider "the Power of the Word." (I'm not quoting anything in particular here, but this phrase has popped into my mind as I've started this study this morning.

One of Christ's many names or titles is the Word. Consider the following:

 In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God. (JST John 1:1)

In the previous chapter of Alma, Amulek gives this particular testimony:

And we have beheld that the great question which is in your minds is whether the word be in the Son of God, or whether there shall be no Christ.

And ye also beheld that my brother has proved unto you, in many instances, that the word is in Christ unto salvation. (Alma 34:5-6)

So if I go back to the beginning of Alma 35, and I'm looking for the testimony of Christ, I find it by replacing the use of "word" with the name of "Christ":

Yea, and the rest of the brethren, after they had preached the [Christ] unto the Zoramites, also came over into the land of Jershon.

And it came to pass that after the more popular part of the Zoramites had consulted together concerning the [Christ] which had been preached unto them, they were angry because of the [Christ], for [He] did destroy their craft; therefore they would not hearken unto the [Christ].

And they sent and gathered together throughout all the land all the people, and consulted with them concerning the [Christ] which had been spoken.

This shifts my perspective on what was being taught by this band of missionaries. They came representing the Christ, and it was their Savior that the rulers, teachers, and priests of  Zoramites rejected.