Jarom 1:14 Textual Variants

The 1837 edition here implemented a grammatical change that may have been made by Joseph Smith, although he did not mark it in the printer’s manuscript. The change replaced the singular that with the plural those, probably because the previous phrase has the plural writings (“the writings of the kings”, not “the writing of the kings”). The that in the original reading refers to the entire collection of the writings of the kings, as if the text read “or that writing which they caused to be written”. The 1837 grammatical revision treats the text as if it read “those writings which they caused to be written”).

Nowhere else in the text are there any examples like those which where the verb write occurs in the relative clause, but there are 11 other occurrences of that which with write in the relative clause. In other words, those never serves as the antecedent for which in any relative clause containing the verb write. We have the following list of possible antecedents for the relative pronoun which, given that the verb is write (for each antecedent, the first instance is referenced):

These examples suggest that if Jarom 1:14 were to be revised, it should read as either “the things which they caused to be written” or “the words which they caused to be written”. On the other hand, “those which they caused to be written” is definitely exceptional in comparison to these other examples involving the verb write in a relative clause. The original reading works perfectly well in Jarom 1:14 and will be restored in the critical text.