Jacob 5:13 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and I do it that I [may 1ABCDEGHKPRST|might FIJLMNOQ] preserve unto myself the natural branches of the tree

Here the 1852 LDS edition accidentally replaced the modal verb may with might. The 1920 edition restored the correct reading to the LDS text; the RLDS text has maintained the original may, as will the critical text.

There has been a considerable amount of unintended shifting between these two modal verbs elsewhere in the text, six times in the manuscripts and three times in the 1841 British edition:

In six cases, Joseph Smith edited might to may, apparently in order to avoid the conditional sense that might has taken on in English:

In each case, we let the earliest textual sources determine which modal is correct. For further discussion, see under modals in volume 3.

Summary: Restore the original modal may in Jacob 5:13 (“that I may preserve unto myself the natural branches of the tree”).

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 2

References