2 Nephi 11:3 Textual Variants

Here the 1888 LDS large-print edition shifted the placement of the word also, from immediately after the subject “my brother Jacob” to after the perfect auxiliary verb that immediately follows. The variation here also involves an 1837 change of hath to has, but that is irrelevant to the word order issue. (For further discussion of hath versus has, see infl tional endings in volume 3.) Elsewhere the text has 11 examples of also between the subject and the perfect auxiliary verb have:

• 1 Nephi 1:16 and he also hath written many things
• 1 Nephi 4:11 and he also had taken away our property
• 1 Nephi 5:2 and she also had complained against my father
• 1 Nephi 14:5 and thou also hast heard that …
• 1 Nephi 17:44 yea and ye also have sought to take away his life
• 1 Nephi 20:19 thy seed also had been as the sand
• 2 Nephi 6:9 and he also hath shewn unto me that …
• Jacob 5:55 the natural trees which also had become wild
• Jacob 7:12 and it also hath been made manifest unto me
• Alma 20:29 and they also had suffered hunger
• Ether 4:5 and he also hath commanded that …

None of these other examples of also were shifted in the 1888 LDS edition, which implies that the shift here in 2 Nephi 11:3 was accidental. The 1888 edition was never used as a copy-text for subsequent LDS editions; therefore this error was never perpetuated. For another example of such an accidental shift, see Jacob 7:12; there the 1906 LDS large-print edition accidentally placed the also after the perfect auxiliary.

Of course, also can come after the auxiliary verb have. There are, for instance, 20 examples where the subject is immediately followed by the perfect auxiliary have and then also (as in 2 Nephi 5:12: “and I Nephi had also brought the records”). For an example where also was accidentally (but only momentarily) moved in front of the perfect auxiliary, see Alma 33:10. In all these cases, the critical text will follow the earliest textual sources in determining the placement of also.