1 Nephi 19:20–21 Textual Variants

The 1830 typesetter added the definite article the before “prophets of old”. The same phrase (that is, without the the) was first used in the preceding verse, which may have led the typesetter to view the second occurrence of the phrase as an already identified subject; thus he could have decided that the definite article was necessary. (In English, we typically use the definite article the to refer to something that has already been identified.)

There are two other places in the text that have “prophets of old”, one with and one without the definite article:

• 1 Nephi 1:20
  • and when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him yea even as with the prophets of old whom they had cast out and stoned and slain
• Jacob 4:13
  • but behold we are not witnesses alone in these things for God also spake them unto prophets of old

We thus let the earliest textual sources determine whether the should precede “prophets of old”. There is nothing inappropriate about having simply “prophets of old” both times in 1 Nephi 19:20–21.