The Book of Mormon

Alma 51:6

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~67 BC

1830 Edition

And those who were desirous that Pahoran should remain Chief Judge over the land, took upon them the name of freemen; and thus was the division among them: for the freemen had sworn or covenanted to maintain their rights, and the privileges of their religion, by a free government.

Influences

John 9:16 (KJV)
Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.

Changes

And those who were desirous that Pahoran should remain Cchief Jjudge over the land, took upon them the name of freemen; and thus was the division among them:, for the freemen had sworn or covenanted to maintain their rights, and the privileges of their religion, by a free government.

Simple English

The people who wanted Pahoran to stay as Chief Judge called themselves freemen. This is how they were divided. The freemen had promised to protect their rights and their freedom to worship through a free government.

Paraphrase

Those who wanted Pahoran to stay as Chief Judge called themselves 'freemen.' This divided the nation. The freemen had sworn to defend their rights and religious freedom through free government.

Notes

51:6-7

"Another seemingly anachronistic issue in the Book of Mormon is a republican form of government. When the Puritans settled in the New World they drew up a document known as the Oath of a Freeman. The word 'freeman' was commonly used in Joseph Smith's day. Als, members of the Smith family had been involved in America's fight for freedom from England in 1776, and in the war of 1812. Thus the concept of liberty and freedom were part of Smith's environment." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 12.

See also Mosiah 29:32, 35, 39 for use of the phrase, "land of liberty."

LDS author Grant Hardy writes, "In 1831, Alexander Campbell, one of the book's first critics (and certainly the first one to read it carefully), famously observed that it seemed to weigh in on all the popular religious questions of the day, including 'infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church government, religious experience, the call to the ministry , the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the question of freemasonry, republican government, and the right of the man.' This is a fair list, and references to these topics-or their analogous counterparts-can be found throughout the Book of Mormon." -Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon, p. 184