1 Nephi 10:9 Textual Variants

The passage here agrees with the corresponding reading in the King James Bible:

• John 1:28
  • these things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan where John was baptizing

The Book of Mormon manuscripts have the spelling Bethebara (and with a lowercase initial b in 𝓞 since scribe 3 of 𝓞 typically spells proper nouns without capitalization). The equivalent Greek spelling Bethebara is actually found in John 1:28 for a couple of manuscripts dating from the 12th and 13th centuries ce. The earliest extant Greek manuscripts support the reading Bethany, but Origen (writing in 253–254 ce) apparently found a few manuscripts with the reading Bethabara. For discussion, see page 171 of Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, second edition (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994); for the specific variation and the manuscripts, see Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, The Greek New Testament, fourth revised edition (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellshaft and United Bible Societies, 1993).

Although textual critics have favored the Bethany of the early manuscripts, it is quite possible that early on in the textual history of the Gospel of John, the strange name Bethabara was accidentally replaced by the more familiar Bethany. The Book of Mormon text agrees with the reading Bethabara rather than Bethany. The manuscript spelling Bethebara appears to be just a misspelling of Bethabara: the schwa pronunciation of the second vowel led the scribe to write e instead of a. Ultimately, the question is whether Joseph Smith spelled out this place-name to the scribe. We find abundant evidence in the original manuscript that Joseph often spelled out Book of Mormon names, especially the first time they occurred. But with most biblical names, he apparently assumed that the scribe could spell them correctly or, if not, that the typesetter would. There is no evidence in the original manuscript for the spellings of recognizable biblical names ever being corrected in this way. (For a list of examples, see the discussion under 1 Nephi 11:13.) Consequently, we should assume that the manuscript spelling Bethebara is simply a misspelling for Bethabara.

The incorrect spelling Bethabary showed up first in the 1837 edition and continued in all editions until the 1908 RLDS edition and the 1920 LDS edition. In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith did not mark this spelling change in 𝓟. Bethabary is undoubtedly a typesetter’s error, probably influenced by the place-name Barbary, which was prominent in American foreign policy issues in the early 1800s.