Enos 1:22–23 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and there were exceeding many prophets among us and the people were a stiff-necked people hard to understand and there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness preaching and prophesying of wars and contentions and destructions and continually reminding them of death and of the duration of eternity and the judgments and the power of God and all these things stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord

Here in Enos 1:22 the apparent meaning of “hard to understand” is that it was hard for this stiff- necked people to understand the prophets, not that it was hard for the prophets to understand this stiff-necked people. The prophets understood this people all too well. A non-elliptic use of “hard to understand” is found in 2 Nephi 25:1: “Isaiah spake many things which were hard for many of my people to understand”. The use of “hard to understand” in Enos 1:22 appears to be intended.

Summary: Maintain in Enos 1:22 the elliptic use of “hard to understand”, which means that it was hard for this stiff-necked people to understand the prophets and their preaching.

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

References