1 Nephi 15:15 Textual Variants

The 1830 typesetter accidentally added the definite article the before “strength and nourishment”, probably in anticipation of the the in the following prepositional phrase (“from the true vine”). There is no prior reference to “strength and nourishment”; in fact, the text actually reads better without the definite article. Usage elsewhere in the text always refers to “receiving strength” rather than “receiving the strength”:

• 1 Nephi 15:6
  • and it came to pass that after I had received strength I spake unto my brethren desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations
• Alma 52:17
  • therefore he abandoned his designs and returned to the city Bountiful to wait for the coming of Moroni that he might receive strength to his army
• Alma 59:7
  • and thus being exceeding numerous yea and receiving strength from day to day by the command of Ammoron they came forth against the people of Nephihah

The definite article the occurs before strength only when there is some postmodifier (as in Ether 15:14, “all the strength which it were possible that they could receive”).