Here the 1830 compositor accidentally set the preposition into as unto. All subsequent editions have continued to follow the 1830 reading.
The scribes occasionally mixed up into and unto. In the manuscripts, we have quite a few examples where the scribe initially wrote one of the prepositions but then changed the preposition to the other. Errors are found in both directions:
| unto > into | into > unto | |
| original manuscript | ||
| Oliver Cowdery | 3 | 2 |
| scribe 3 of 𝓞 | 1 | 0 |
| printer’s manuscript | ||
| Oliver Cowdery | 7 | 1 |
| scribe 2 of 𝓟 | 1 | 6 |
Scribe 3 of 𝓞 wrote the text for 1 Nephi 7:2, and we do have one example of him mixing up the two prepositions:
1 Nephi 10:20 (scribe 3 of 𝓞) therefore remember O man for all thy doings thou shalt be brought [unto >% into 0|into 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] judgment
When we examine the text as a whole, we find that when the discussion involves the movement of people into a land, any of the three prepositions into, unto, and to is possible. We have the following statistics for the earliest text of the Book of Mormon (which are compared with the King James Bible) for “the land of X”, where X is a proper name. We include in these statistics the one case here in 1 Nephi 7:2 of “into the land of Jerusalem”.
| into | unto | to | |
| king james bible (totals) | 39 | 9 | 6 |
| book of mormon (totals) | 34 | 5 | 77 |
| X = Ammonihah | 1 | ||
| Antionum | 1 | ||
| Corihor | 1 | ||
| Cumorah | 2 | 2 | |
| Egypt | 1 | ||
| Gideon | 1 | 2 | |
| Helam | 1 | ||
| Ishmael | 6 | ||
| Jashon | 1 | ||
| Jershon | 4 | 1 | |
| Jerusalem | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Joshua | 1 | ||
| Lehi | 1 | ||
| Lehi-Nephi | 1 | ||
| Manti | 3 | 1 | |
| Melek | 3 | ||
| Middoni | 1 | 6 | |
| Midian | 1 | ||
| Moron | 2 | 1 | |
| Moroni | 3 | 1 | |
| Nephi | 4 | 24 | |
| Noah | 1 | ||
| Sidom | 1 | ||
| Siron | 1 | ||
| Zarahemla | 10 | 19 |
In the King James Bible, into dominates, while in the Book of Mormon to dominates, but in both texts all three prepositions (into, unto, and to) are possible. This multiplicity suggests that in each instance of this type we should let the earliest textual sources determine the appropriate preposition in the Book of Mormon text.
Semantically, the use of unto seems to imply a kind of permanent return to a land, while into can be temporary, especially with the verb return. There are three examples with “return unto”, and each definitely means ‘to return to live permanently’:
In the first two examples, Nephi refers to his brothers returning to live in Jerusalem; in the third example, a later prophet Nephi returns to reside once more in “the land of his nativity”. In 1 Nephi 7:2, on the other hand, Nephi and his brothers have been commanded to temporarily “return into the land of Jerusalem”.
Summary: Follow the earliest textual sources in determining the preposition for 1 Nephi 7:2 (“into the land of Jerusalem”).