Jacob 2:1–2 Textual Variants

When copying here from 𝓞 into 𝓟, Oliver Cowdery seems to have initially intended to write “The words of Jacob the brother of Nephi which he spake unto the people of Nephi”, probably because he had gotten used to this phraseology in introducing a speaker’s words:

• 2 Nephi 6:1–2
  • The words of Jacob the brother of Nephi which he spake unto the people of Nephi: Behold my beloved brethren …
• Alma 7 preface, followed by the first part of Alma 7:1
  • The words of Alma which he delivered to the people in Gideon according to his own record: Behold my beloved brethren …
• Alma 9 preface
  • The words of Alma and also the words of Amulek which was declared unto the people which was in the land of Ammonihah and also they are cast into prison and delivered by the miraculous power of God which was in them according to the record of Alma
• Moroni 2:1–2
  • The words of Christ which he spake unto his disciples the twelve whom he had chosen as he laid his hands upon them and he called them by name saying ye shall call on the Father in my name in mighty prayer

For all four of these passages, Oliver was the probable scribe in 𝓞 (the nearest extant fragments of 𝓞 are all in his hand). And for the first instance listed above (2 Nephi 6:1–2), Oliver had recently copied that passage into 𝓟. Of course, here at the beginning of Jacob 2, the phraseology is specifically different. Oliver did not finish writing out the entire clause that he expected. Instead, he crossed out the of that he had written and supralinearly inserted the word which. Oliver’s correction is virtually immediate (the level of ink flow for the supralinear which is unchanged).

It should also be noted here that usually the 1830 compositor highlighted such introductory words by setting them in italics and inserting a blank line to separate these words from the main body of the text that followed. I refer to these introductory statements (such as at the beginning of Alma 7 and Alma 9) as prefaces. In a few instances the 1830 compositor did not explicitly identify such introductory words as prefaces but instead set them in roman type and as part of the main text, without any intervening spacing. A good example of this difference in treatment arises when we compare the phraseology for the Alma 7 preface with that of 2 Nephi 6:1 and Jacob 2:1. Essentially, all three have the same narrative form. Note further how in each of these three cases the following main text starts out with the same vocative phrase, “my beloved brethren”. Because of the decision of the 1830 compositor to set 2 Nephi 6:1 and Jacob 2:1 as regular narrative, later LDS and RLDS editions have assigned a verse number to each of these two prefaces, unlike the prefaces that the 1830 compositor specifically set in italics.