Enos 1:20 Textual Variants

The 1837 edition added an in before the second of the conjoined elements in this clause but not before the third, which results in a fairly unusual construction for the Book of Mormon. This extra in appears to be a typo since other lists of weapons (bows, arrows, swords, scimitars, axes, clubs, slings, and stones) are basically invariant with respect to prepositional repetition. In virtually all other instances, the preposition (whether repeated or not) is with. And this preposition can occur before every conjoined noun phrase, as in the following example:

• Mosiah 9:16
  • I did arm them with bows and with arrows with swords and with scimitars and with clubs and with slings and with all manner of weapons which we could invent

In the current text there are eight more examples like this one.

In three examples we have with occurring before each conjoined noun phrase except for a last noun phrase that generally refers to other kinds of weapons:

• Alma 43:18
  • with swords and with scimitars and all manner of weapons of war
• Alma 57:14
  • with stones and with clubs or whatsoever thing they could get into their hands
• Alma 60:2
  • with swords and with scimitars and all manner of weapons of war of every kind

Finally, in seven cases, we have the same lack of prepositional repetition that is found in the original text for Enos 1:20—namely, the preposition occurs in front of only the first noun phrase. In all cases but one, the conjunctive structure involves two conjuncts; and in two cases, the preposition is not with but either from or by:

• 1 Nephi 16:15 with our bows and our arrows and our stones and our slings
• Alma 43:37 with their swords and their scimitars
• Alma 49:2 from the arrows and the stones of the Lamanites
• Alma 49:20 with their swords and their slings
• Alma 49:22 by the stones and the arrows
• Helaman 16:6 with their stones and their arrows
• Helaman 16:6 with our stones and our arrows

The first example shows that there can be three or more conjuncts for which the preposition appears before only the first conjunct.

There is only one instance of potential irregularity; in this instance, the conjoined phrase “a bow and an arrow” apparently acts as a unit:

• 1 Nephi 16:23
  • wherefore I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow with a sling and with stones

In any event, the original structure for Enos 1:20 is consistent with one of the dominant kinds of coordination found in the Book of Mormon text; thus in Enos 1:20 the intrusive, repetitive in will be removed. For further discussion, see conjunctive repetition in volume 3.