1 Nephi 13:24 Textual Variants

The original manuscript has bare (spelled by scribe 2 with a capital letter B), but the a can also be interpreted as an o since this scribe, like scribe 3 of 𝓞, does not always clearly distinguish between these two letters. (For instance, the word abominable nine lines below actually looks like it is spelled abominoble.) Oliver Cowdery, when he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟, interpreted both cases of Bare / Bore as bare, but in accord with his typical spelling, he wrote each one as bear. The presenttense form bear has been retained throughout the published editions of the Book of Mormon.

This passage describes the Bible as going forth to the Gentiles, with the explanation that it contained not only the fullness of the gospel but also the witness of the twelve apostles that Jesus was the Lamb of God (that is, the Messiah who was the sacrificial lamb for all mankind). Thus the past-tense verb form bare works both times in this passage. On the other hand, one could interpret the testimony of the twelve apostles as an eternal one, and thus the present-tense interpretation is also possible. In 3 Nephi we have specific evidence for both interpretations, as discussed under bear in volume 3.

Subsequent verses in 1 Nephi 13 repeatedly state that the Bible came to the Gentiles through the twelve apostles. The Bible, in other words, is their record:

• 1 Nephi 13:25–26 (referring to the Bible)
  • wherefore these things go forth from the Jews in purity unto the Gentiles according to the truth which is in God and after that they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb from the Jews unto the Gentiles …
• 1 Nephi 13:38–39 (referring first to the Bible, then to other scriptures, and finally back to the Bible)
  • I beheld the remnant of the seed of my brethren and also the book of the Lamb of God which had proceeded forth from the mouth of the Jew and I beheld that it came forth from the Gentiles unto the remnant of the seed of my brethren and after it had come forth unto them I beheld other books which came forth by the power of the Lamb from the Gentiles unto them unto the convincing of the Gentiles and the remnant of the seed of my brethren and also to the Jews which were scattered upon all the face of the earth that the records of the prophets and of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are true
• 1 Nephi 13:40 (referring first to other scriptures, then to the Bible)
  • these last records which thou hast seen among the Gentiles shall establish the truth of the first which is of the twelve apostles of the Lamb
• 1 Nephi 13:41 (referring first to the Book of Mormon, then to the Bible)
  • and the words of the Lamb shall be made known in the records of thy seed as well as in the records of the twelve apostles of the Lamb

All these additional references to the twelve apostles in 1 Nephi 13 refer to the Bible as their book. By having the past-tense form bare both times in verse 24, the Book of Mormon explicitly states that it is in the Bible that the twelve apostles bore record that Jesus was the Lamb of God.