Jacob 5:48 Textual Variants

The 1837 edition deleted the second thereof in this passage. Since this deletion was marked by Joseph Smith in the printer’s manuscript, we can be sure that he intended it. This is the only thereof that Joseph deleted in the olive tree allegory—or, for that matter, in the entire text of the Book of Mormon. The 1920 LDS edition deleted thereof seven times in the book of Ether; for discussion of that editing, see under Ether 2:20.

One possible reason for the deletion of the thereof here in Jacob 5:48 is that Joseph Smith may have thought the second “the roots thereof” was too close to the first one, although elsewhere in the allegory there are examples of “the root(s) thereof ” that are extremely close to each other, sometimes even closer than here in verse 48:

• Jacob 5:18
  • behold the branches of the wild tree hath taken hold of the moisture of the root thereof that the root thereof hath brought forth much strength and because of the much strength of the root thereof the wild branches hath brought forth tame fruit
• Jacob 5:37
  • but behold the wild branches have grew and have overran the roots thereof and because that the wild branches have overcome the roots thereof it hath brought forth much evil fruit

The first two occurrences of “the root thereof ” in Jacob 5:18 are separated by only one word, that.

Another possible explanation is that Joseph Smith deleted the second thereof in Jacob 5:48 because its antecedent was the pronoun they, which refers, of course, to the branches explicitly mentioned earlier in the initial because-clause (“and because that the branches have overcame the roots thereof”). The second thereof thus seems somewhat strange because the reader must first refer to the they and then look even earlier in the sentence to determine that this they refers to the preceding the branches. Yet this same difficulty in interpretation occurs later on in the allegory:

• Jacob 5:58–59
  • and we will pluck from the trees those branches which are ripened that must perish and cast them into the fire and this I do that perhaps the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness

In this second case, the nearest antecedent for thereof is the pronoun them, which ultimately refers to the earlier those branches. So even under this alternative explanation, the deletion of thereof in Jacob 5:48 seems problematic. The critical text will restore the thereof in Jacob 5:48 since its original use there appears to have been intended and not the result of an error in the text.