1 Nephi 18:2 Textual Variants

Here in 1 Nephi 18:2, the 1830 compositor replaced the singular man (the reading of the manuscripts) with the plural form men. The plural form is consistent with the rest of the passage— namely, “after the manner which was learned by men” and (especially) “wherefore it was not after the manner of men”.

Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text, in the phrase “after the manner of X” (where X refers to people), the X is always in the plural, never in the singular as a representative of the whole group:

“after the manner of the Jews” (not the Jew)

2 Nephi 25:6, Alma 11:4 (two times), Alma 16:13

“after the manner of the Lamanites” (not the Lamanite)

Alma 3:4, Alma 18:43

“after the manner of robbers” (not a robber)

3 Nephi 4:7

“after the manner of the ancients” (not the ancient )

Ether 10:33

This usage is also found in the King James Bible, where all 13 examples of “after the manner of X” use the plural for X, including three with the phraseology “after the manner of men”:

• Romans 6:19
  • I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh
• Corinthians 15:32
  • if after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rise not
• Galatians 3:15
  • brethren I speak after the manner of men

Finally, there are specific cases in the manuscripts where Oliver Cowdery mistakenly wrote man in place of men. In the following example, found in both manuscripts, Oliver initially wrote man, then corrected it to men:

• Alma 34:15
  • which overpowereth justice and bringeth about means unto [man > men 01|men ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] that they may have faith unto repentance

In both manuscripts, Oliver overwrote the a with an e and without any change in the level of ink flow, which implies that both times Oliver caught his mistake immediately. The correction is not surprising since the following plural pronoun they jarringly contradicts the singular man.

The probable cause in 1 Nephi 18:2 for why Oliver Cowdery might have accidentally written man rather than men is the preceding word manner. Having just written down manner, Oliver was perhaps prompted to write the letters man once more; thus he ended up writing “after the manner of man” instead of the correct “after the manner of men”.