2 Nephi 2:22 Textual Variants

In this verse, Adam is referred to in the singular, yet both the preceding and the following text refer to both Adam and Eve:

• 2 Nephi 2:19–20
  • and after that Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out from the garden of Eden to till the earth and they have brought forth children yea even the family of all the earth
• 2 Nephi 2:22–23
  • and they must have remained forever and had no end and they would have had no children wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence having no joy for they knew no misery doing no good for they knew no sin

The use of the pronoun they in 2 Nephi 2:22–23 is especially egregious since they refers to Adam and Eve, yet the preceding text (at the beginning of verse 22) refers only to Adam. One could perhaps propose rewriting the beginning of verse 22 in the plural:

• 2 Nephi 2:22 (possible emendation to the plural)
  • and now behold if Adam and Eve had not transgressed they would not have fallen but they would have remained in the garden of Eden

Of course, it is extremely doubtful here that we have a primitive error in the earliest text for the beginning of verse 22. The switch to Adam and the singular pronoun he seems to be just as intentional as the surrounding use of Adam and Eve and the plural pronoun they.

In a personal communication (8 November 2003), Kelly Taylor points out that the switch to Adam at the beginning of verse 22 may be explained as a generic reference to Adam and Eve. Consider the following examples of pronoun shifting in the account of the creation of Adam and Eve in the King James Bible:

• Genesis 1:26–27
  • and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion … so God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them
• Genesis 5:1–2
  • this is the book of the generations of Adam [ ƒffladfflam]
    in the day that God created man [ ƒffladfflam] in the likeness of God made he him male and female created he them 
    and blessed them and called their name Adam [ ƒffladfflam] in the day when they were created

The second passage is especially noteworthy. Here the Hebrew text uses √ffladfflam three times (numbered as 1, 2, and 3) to refer to generic man (meaning ‘human being’, not ‘male’). The King James Bible translates only the second occurrence as man. In the two other cases, the King James text has Adam. The last example is particularly relevant since in this instance Adam is directly used to refer to both Adam and Eve (“male and female”). In the same way, the Book of Mormon text can be said to use Adam alone at the beginning of 2 Nephi 2:22 to refer to both Adam and Eve.