The two homophones strait and straight derive from two different words: strait is a loanword that comes from Old French estreit (and ultimately from Latin strictus); straight is from Middle English strehte, the past participle of the modern verb stretch. There is also a clear difference in meaning: strait means ‘narrow or tight’, while straight means ‘not crooked’. For numerous examples, see the Oxford English Dictionary.
There are 27 occurrences of strait and straight in the Book of Mormon. Except in one case, the scribes spelled both straight ‘not crooked’ and strait ‘narrow’ identically as strait. The only example with the spelling straight is in the original manuscript for Alma 50:8. On the other hand, the 1830 edition consistently spelled all 27 as straight. Thus the earliest textual sources provide no evidence as to which word is intended. The decision must be made on the basis of context.
Since in most instances the 1830 spelling straight is correct, editing has been restricted to determining which ones should actually read strait. And the only editions that have introduced this spelling are twentieth-century ones. For instance, the 1981 LDS edition systematically emended “straight and narrow” to “strait and narrow”: namely, here in 1 Nephi 8:20 and also in 2 Nephi 31:18, 2 Nephi 31:19, and Helaman 3:29. The LDS textual history has the following numbers of changes replacing the earlier straight with strait: 1906 large-print edition, 2 cases; 1907 vest-pocket edition, 4 cases; 1920 edition, 2 cases; and 1981 edition, 6 cases. The 1953 RLDS edition changed 4 cases of straight to strait. The individual examples are discussed throughout this volume, but a complete list of the variation for all 27 cases of strait and straight can be found under strait in volume 3.
Six of the occurrences of strait and straight are relatively noncontroversial. In these instances, there is little difficulty in determining which word is intended:
(1) an arrow needs to be straight so it can fly straight
(2) the verb straiten with its meaning ‘to subject to privation, hardship, or distress’ (see definition 7 under straiten in the OED)
(3) a direct quote from Isaiah 49:20 with the meaning ‘narrow’
(4) the adverb straightway with its meaning ‘immediately’ (see definition 2 under straightway in the OED)
On the other hand, there are 21 occurrences that involve the words path, course, way, and gate. In every instance, a gate is always strait or narrow, never straight. A way is always narrow, never straight. (Even though strait means ‘narrow’, the word strait is never used with way.) The difficulty arises with path and course. As we shall see, there is evidence that paths and courses can be both straight and narrow, but not redundantly “strait and narrow”. The 21 occurrences can be divided into six cases:
(1 ) a straight and narrow path (or course)
Here straight and narrow are conjoined and refer to either a path (three times) or a course (once). It seems very doubtful that the completely redundant “strait and narrow” is intended:
The OED lists the phrase as “straight and narrow” (with citations under definition 3a of straight ), although the OED argues that the etymological source for straight in “straight and narrow” is strait rather than straight. This claim is based on the language of Matthew 7:14: “strait is the gate and narrow is the way”. Nonetheless, the phrase “straight and narrow” does not perfectly match Matthew 7:14 since the biblical expression does not directly conjoin strait and narrow as “strait and narrow”; instead, we have “the gate is strait” (that is, ‘narrow’) and “the way is narrow”, so there is no redundancy.
One potential argument here is that the redundant “strait and narrow” is permissible because the Book of Mormon allows synonymous conjuncts. However, the examples of adjectival conjunctivity in the Book of Mormon are never definitionally synonymous like “strait and narrow” would be. Here are some typical examples as they appear in the current LDS text:
In each of these cases, the shorter and more frequent and general adjective comes first, followed by the longer, less frequent, and more specific adjective. With the putative example of “strait and narrow”, the syllabically longer narrow is the more general and frequent word and yet it comes second rather than first in the conjunctive construction. This incongruity suggests that “strait and narrow” is inappropriate as an example of synonymous adjectival conjunctivity in the Book of Mormon. Of course, no such problem arises with the nonsynonymous “straight and narrow”.
(2 ) a narrow way and a straight course
In the following example, we have clear evidence that a way can be both narrow and straight:
The use of the but clearly indicates that straight cannot be replaced by strait (with its meaning ‘narrow’). The conjunction but involves a reversal or contradiction in meaning and could not be used here since the meaning would then be ‘the way for man is narrow but it lieth in a narrow course’.
One could reverse this evidence in favor of “straight and narrow” by proposing that the conjunction but is an error for and (which could then allow for this passage to be reinterpreted as “the way for man is narrow and it lieth in a strait course before him”). Throughout the history of the text, there have been a number of cases where but has been changed to and (and vice versa, from and to but). For further discussion, see each of the following passages:
Despite these many examples, it should be remembered that there are over 17,000 examples of and and but in the text that have been transmitted without any variation and without any subsequent attempt to edit. Thus the chances that one particular example of but (in 2 Nephi 9:41) is in error is minuscule. Even then, the only motivation for changing the but to and would be to salvage a dubious attempt to preserve the reading “strait and narrow” elsewhere in the text. The current text in 2 Nephi 9:41 should be maintained since there is no specific evidence that anything is inappropriate about the conjunction but in this passage.
(3 ) a straight course
There are four additional examples with the phraseology of “a straight course”:
(4 ) a strait gate and a narrow way
There are three passages that have this usage. They can be derived from Jesus’s language in the Sermon on the Mount:
This biblical passage has two occurrences that refer to “the strait gate” and one to “the narrow way”. The passage is directly quoted twice in the Book of Mormon, although in the second case the order is altered and there is some paraphrase:
This same basic language is also used by Jacob, the brother of Nephi. In this instance, the first clause directly quotes the language of Matthew 7 (and 3 Nephi 14) while the second clause is different yet still refers to “the narrow way”:
(5 ) a straight path
The original source for the phrase “a straight path” in the Book of Mormon can be traced to the Septuagint translation of Isaiah:
But the specific phraseology in the Book of Mormon is virtually identical to the language of the synoptic Gospels, which typically quote from the Septuagint:
In 1 Nephi 10:7–10, Lehi uses language found in the Gospels to describe John the Baptist’s words. Thus Lehi quotes, for instance, the above passage from the synoptic Gospels as follows:
This same language is paraphrased elsewhere in the text. Note the occasional use of the same vocabulary, especially the verbs prepare and make as well as the noun way:
I perceive that it hath been made known unto you by the testimony of his word that he cannot walk in crooked paths neither doth he vary from that which he hath said neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left
Notice, in particular, the references in Alma 7:20 to “crooked paths” and “turning from the right to the left”, in direct contrast to straight paths.
(6 ) a narrow gate and a strait path (or a straight path)
There are two passages near the end of 2 Nephi where a narrow gate occurs with either a strait path or a straight path:
Both passages have a separate clause that refers to “entering through the narrow gate”. And the second passage refers to the path “which leads to life”. These expressions directly relate to the language of the Sermon on the Mount. Consider especially the parallelism of the Matthew text and the second passage:
| Matthew 7:13–14 ( 3 Nephi 14:13–14) | 2 Nephi 33:9 |
|
enter ye in at the strait gate … and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life |
and enter into the narrow gate and walk in the strait path which leads to life |
On the other hand, 2 Nephi 33:9 uses the language of Alma 7:9 (“and walk in his paths which are straight”), which shows the influence of Isaiah 40:3. One other example, also cited earlier, has the phraseology “which leads to eternal life”, but in this instance the text allows for the path to be both “straight and narrow”:
Thus it appears that either reading (strait or straight) is possible in 2 Nephi 31:9 and 2 Nephi 33:9. Nonetheless, we have to choose one, and it is not easy to decide. Consistent with the more extensive parallelism with Matthew 7:13–14, it seems more reasonable to choose strait for these two ambiguous passages, although we have to recognize that straight will also work.
Summary: Maintain the current distinctions between strait and straight as they are found in the 1981 LDS edition except for the four cases of “strait and narrow”, which should be restored to “straight and narrow” (1 Nephi 8:20, 2 Nephi 31:18, 2 Nephi 31:19, and Helaman 3:29); supported by 2 Nephi 9:41, these four examples explicitly state that paths and courses can be both straight and narrow; the examples in 2 Nephi 31:9 and 2 Nephi 33:9 parallel Matthew 7:13–14, thus the path in those verses should probably be considered strait rather than straight, although either will work.