Jacob 1:11 Textual Variants

The Book of Mormon text often uses and to separate each member in a list of names, as in the following examples:

• Mosiah 27:34
  • and four of them were the sons of Mosiah and their names were Ammon and Aaron and Omner and Himni these were the names of the sons of Mosiah
• 3 Nephi 19:4
  • behold Nephi and his brother whom he had raised from the dead whose name was Timothy and also his son whose name was Jonas and also Mathoni and Mathonihah his brother and Kumen and Kumenonhi and Jeremiah and Shemnon and Jonas and Zedekiah and Isaiah now these were the names of the disciples whom Jesus had chosen
• 4 Nephi 1:37–38
  • therefore the true believers in Christ and the true worshippers of Christ … were called Nephites and Jacobites and Josephites and Zoramites and it came to pass that they which rejected the gospel were called Lamanites and Lemuelites and Ishmaelites

On the other hand, there are cases where only the last name is preceded by an and:

• 1 Nephi preface
  • and his four sons being called beginning at the eldest Laman Lemuel Sam and Nephi
• Jacob 1:13
  • nevertheless they were called Nephites Jacobites Josephites Zoramites Lamanites Lemuelites and Ishmaelites

So here in Jacob 1:11, either reading is theoretically possible; thus the use of “second Nephi and third Nephi etc.” in the earliest extant source (the printer’s manuscript) is quite normal. The 1830 compositor, probably accidentally, omitted the and before “third Nephi”. Since either reading is possible, the critical text will accept the earliest reading, the one with the and.

Also here in Jacob 1:11, the editors for the 1920 LDS edition replaced the original etc. with the expanded English form “and so forth”. The critical text will maintain the original etc. For a brief discussion, see the 1 Nephi preface; for a complete discussion, see etc. in volume 3.