The Book of Mormon

Alma 14:27

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~82 BC

1830 Edition

And it came to pass that so great was their fear, that they fell to the earth, and did not obtain the outer door of the prison; and the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were wrent in twain, so that they fell to the earth; and the Chief Judge, and the Lawyers, and Priests, and teachers which smote upon Alma and Amulek, were slain by the fall thereof.

Influences

Matthew 27:51 (KJV)
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

Changes

And it came to pass that so great was their fear, that they fell to the earth, and did not obtain the outer door of the prison; and the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were wrent in twain, so that they fell to the earth; and the Cchief Jjudge, and the Llawyers, and Ppriests, and teachers, whicho smote upon Alma and Amulek, were slain by the fall thereof.

Simple English

They were so afraid that they fell to the ground. They couldn’t get to the outside door of the prison. The earth shook hard and the prison walls split in half. The walls fell to the ground. The chief judge and the lawyers, priests, and teachers who had hit Alma and Amulek were killed by the falling walls.

Paraphrase

Terror seized them so completely that they collapsed before reaching the prison door. The earth shook violently. The prison walls split in two and came crashing down. The chief judge, the lawyers, priests, and teachers who had beaten Alma and Amulek were killed by the falling walls.

Notes

14:22-28

In Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, Jerald and Sandra Tanner list at least 17 significant parallels between the Apostle Paul in the Bible and Alma in the Book of Mormon.

Compare Alma 14:22 with Acts 16:23—both Alma and Paul were cast into prison. Compare Alma 14:26 with Acts 16:25—both men prayed to the Lord while imprisoned. Compare Alma 14:27 with Acts 16:26—in each account, a great earthquake occurs. Finally, compare Alma 14:28 with Acts 16:26—in both cases, the prisoners’ bands were loosed.

Additional parallels between Paul and Alma can be found in Mosiah 27:8; Alma 36:6; Alma 36:14; Mosiah 27:10–11; Mosiah 27:12; Mosiah 27:13; Mosiah 27:19; Mosiah 27:23–24; Mosiah 27:32; Alma 30:32; and Alma 15:11.