Jacob 7:4 Textual Variants

James Siebach (personal communication, 26 July 2004) wonders if there is something defective here in the use of the subordinate conjunction that. He suggests that the text should read in that. In such a case, the that would be an explanatory that. In the original text there is only one example of in that, but the in was deleted in the 1837 edition:

• 1 Nephi 8:37
  • and he did exhort them then with all the feeling of a tender parent that they would hearken to his words [in 01A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] that perhaps the Lord would be merciful to them and not cast them off

Thus an in could have been deleted in Jacob 7:4, but only as Joseph Smith dictated it to Oliver Cowdery since the original manuscript is extant here and reads without any in: “& he was learned that he had … ”.

Another possible emendation along these lines would be so that. Under this interpretation the that would be a resultive that. The text has 12 instances of so that, including the following example:

• Alma 14:27
  • and the earth shook mightily and the walls of the prison were rent in twain so that they fell to the earth

Despite these examples, there are also examples in the text of that alone and with the meaning ‘in that’ or ‘so that’, as in the following:

• 1 Nephi 8:17
  • wherefore I cast mine eyes toward the head of the river that perhaps I might see them

So the use of that without in or so is possible in Jacob 7:4, despite its awkwardness for modern English readers.