2 Nephi 9:28 Textual Variants

Joseph Smith replaced the second wherefore with and, perhaps because the second wherefore came too closely after the first one. We have already seen examples of Joseph deleting repeated wherefore ’s within a single sentence. For examples involving subordinate clauses, see 1 Nephi 11:1 and 1 Nephi 13:34. But here in 2 Nephi 9:28, both occurrences of wherefore are found within separate sentences. This type of editing is virtually nonexistent elsewhere in the text. The original and current texts both retain numerous examples of closely occurring sequences of wherefore in separate sentences, such as the following examples in 2 Nephi:

• 2 Nephi 2:11
  • wherefore all things must needs be a compound in one
    wherefore if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead
• 2 Nephi 2:12
  • wherefore it must needs have been created for a thing of naught
    wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation
    wherefore this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God
• 2 Nephi 32:3
  • wherefore they speak the words of Christ
    wherefore I said unto you: feast upon the words of Christ

These examples all have a single independent clause between each pair of wherefore ’s, while here in 2 Nephi 9:28 there are two conjoined independent clauses between the pair of wherefore ’s (“their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not”). So in these three other passages, the wherefore ’s are syntactically closer than in the one passage Joseph Smith decided to edit. The change here in 2 Nephi 9:28 seems to be idiosyncratic. The critical text will, of course, restore the original wherefore that was edited to and.