1 Nephi 12:11–12 Textual Variants

[& inserted in the margin, at the beginning of the line, with the same level of ink flow]

Here we have two examples where scribe 2 of 𝓞 momentarily skipped the and. Throughout this part of 1 Nephi, there are five other examples of this tendency on his part:

• 1 Nephi 12:18–19
  • … and Jesus Christ which is the Lamb of God of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record from the beginning of the world until this time and from this time henceforth and forever [NULL > & 0|& 1|And ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] while the angel spake these words I beheld and saw that the seed of my brethren did contend against my seed
    • [& inserted supralinearly, with no insert mark, with the same level of ink flow]
• 1 Nephi 13:2–3
  • and I said I behold many nations and kingdoms [NULL > & 0|& 1|And ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] he saith unto me these are the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles
    • [& inserted in the margin, at the beginning of the line, with the same level of ink flow]
• 1 Nephi 13:13
  • and it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God that it wrought upon other Gentiles [NULL > & 0|& 1|and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] they went forth out of captivity upon the many waters
    • [& inserted supralinearly, with an insert mark, with the same level of ink flow]
• 1 Nephi 13:20
  • and I beheld a book [it >% & 0|& 1|and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] it was carried forth among them
    • [& initially skipped, then the subject pronoun it was erased and overwritten with the &]
• 1 Nephi 15:28
  • and I said unto them that it was an awful gulf which separateth the wicked from the tree of life [𝓢① NULL > 𝓢② & 0|& 1|and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] also from the saints of God
    • [& skipped by scribe 2, but supralinearly inserted later by Oliver Cowdery with a sharper quill; no insert mark for the &]

Except for the last case, scribe 2 caught his error; in the last instance, Oliver Cowdery supplied the and, which seems required. Of the corrections made by scribe 2 himself, only the first case (here in 1 Nephi 12:11) has a different level of ink flow. In the last of scribe 2’s own corrections (the one in 1 Nephi 13:20), there is an erasure, which indicates an immediate correction. The preceding five corrections were probably done when scribe 2 read back the text to Joseph Smith, since in each case the placement of the ampersand indicates that the basic text had already been written. The first one ended up with a weaker level of ink flow, but the ink flow for each of the next four is unchanged, which suggests that these corrections were not due to later editing on the part of scribe 2.

The biblical style (based on the Hebrew) uses and ’s between sentences to create a continuously connected narrative. In each of these cases, the abruptness without the and definitely seems inappropriate.