1 Nephi 13:12 Textual Variants

For the second edition of the Book of Mormon (1837), Joseph Smith typically edited the relative pronoun which to who when it referred to people. (Of course, in modern English, who is what we expect.) Here are four other examples from this same chapter where the antecedent for an original which was the Gentiles:

• 1 Nephi 13:16
  • and it came to pass that I Nephi beheld that the Gentiles [which 0A|which >js who 1|who BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord
• 1 Nephi 13:19
  • and I Nephi beheld that the Gentiles [which 0A|which >js that 1|that BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God
• 1 Nephi 13:29
  • and after it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles
    —yea even across the many waters which thou hast seen— with the Gentiles which have gone forth out of captivity …
• 1 Nephi 13:30
  • nevertheless thou beholdest that the Gentiles [which 0A|which >js who 1|who BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] have gone forth out of captivity …

In Early Modern English, the relative pronoun which was generally used to refer to humans; such usage occurs throughout the King James Bible (as in Matthew 6:9, “our Father which art in heaven”). In the Book of Mormon text, Joseph Smith usually replaced these cases of the archaic which with who (or whom), although occasionally he replaced the which with that. And in a few cases, he neglected to make the change, leaving the original which. These five examples from 1 Nephi 13 show all three of these possibilities. In four of the cases, he replaced the which (three times with who and once with that), but in one case he left the which unchanged. The critical text will, of course, restore all the original which ’s. For a complete discussion of this editing, see which in volume 3.