Words of Mormon 1:4–6 Textual Variants

Here in verse 5 the current LDS and RLDS texts have the past-tense form chose. But Mormon’s use of the present tense throughout this passage (marked above in bold) makes it more likely that the intended verb form is the present-tense choose (which was introduced into the 1852 LDS edition and continued in the LDS text up to the 1920 edition).

Oliver Cowdery almost always spelled choose as chose; the spelling is chose for every extant example in the original manuscript and for every example in the printer’s manuscript until the last example (in Ether 6:24), where for the first time Oliver wrote the correct spelling choose for the base form of the verb:

Oliver Cowdery’s spellings of the base form choose in 𝓞 and 𝓟 (the three extant cases in 𝓞 are each marked with an asterisk)

• 2 Nephi 2:27 and they are free to chose liberty
• 2 Nephi 2:27 or to chose captivity and death
• 2 Nephi 2:28 and chose eternal life
• 2 Nephi 2:29 and not chose eternal death
• 2 Nephi 10:23 to chose this way of everlasting death
• 2 Nephi 17:15 and to chose the good
• 2 Nephi 17:16 to refuse the evil and chose the good
• *2 Nephi 24:1 and will yet chose Israel
• 2 Nephi 26:10 they yieldeth unto the devil and chose works of darkness
• Alma 30:8 chose ye this day
• Helaman 13:29 how long will ye chose darkness
• *Helaman 14:31 ye might chose life or death
• Ether 6:24 choose ye out from among our sons a king

(In volume 1 of the critical text, the transcript for Alma 30:8 in 𝓞 incorrectly reads ch[o|u]use; this word should have been transcribed as ch[o|u]se; that is, one can read Alma 30:8 as either chose or chuse. It appears that chose was what Oliver intended to spell.)

Oliver Cowdery’s spellings of the past-tense form chose in 𝓞 and 𝓟 (the two extant cases in 𝓞 are each marked with an asterisk)

• Alma 40:13 they chose evil works
• Helaman 5:2 and they which chose evil were more numerous
• Helaman 5:2 than they which chose good
• Ether 6:25 they chose even the first born
• Ether 6:26 they chose all the brothers of Pagag

For one of the past-tense cases (Alma 40:13), there has been some difficulty in the editions in deciding whether the correct reading should be chose or choose. For discussion, see under that passage.

Scribe 2 of 𝓟 as well as John Gilbert (the 1830 compositor) had no difficulty with the spellings choose and chose, although in two cases there are errors in 𝓟 that seem to reflect Oliver Cowdery’s misspelling in 𝓞 of choose as chose (marked below with an ):

Scribe 2 of 𝓟’s spellings of the base form choose
(none of these are extant in 𝓞)

• Mosiah 29:25 choose you by the voice of this people judges
• Mosiah 29:27 the voice of the people doth choose iniquity
• Alma 10:19 the voice of this people should cause iniquity
• Alma 13:3 being left to Ch{ose%>|oos}e good or evil
• Alma 13:10 they chooseing to repent and work righteousness

Scribe 2 of 𝓟’s spellings of the past-tense form chose
(none of these are extant in 𝓞)

• Mormon 3:18 by the twelve whom Jesus chose to be his disciples
• Mormon 3:19 by the twelve whom Jesus chose in this land
• Mormon 3:19 by the other twelve whom Jesus chose in the land of Jerusalem

In Alma 13:3, scribe 2 of 𝓟 originally wrote Chose in 𝓟, then by erasure corrected it to Choose. Oliver had probably written chose or Chose in 𝓞 (which therefore led scribe 2 of 𝓟 to initially write Chose rather than the correct choose). Oliver was the scribe for 𝓞 here since nearby fragments of 𝓞 are in his hand. And in Alma 10:19, scribe 2 of 𝓟 misread, it would appear, Oliver’s spelling chose in 𝓞 as cause. The language in this passage is based on king Mosiah’s statement in Mosiah 29:27: “and if the time cometh that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you”. Oliver’s error in Alma 10:19 may have been influenced by the preceding use of cause in the same verse: “causing that this people should be governed by their own voices”. Both cause and chose are of the same length, which probably facilitated the visual error. This misreading would have been less likely if Oliver had spelled the present-tense form correctly in 𝓞 with the longer choose. John Gilbert emended cause to the correct choose in 𝓟 (by crossing out cause and supralinearly inserting choose, all in pencil). Thus these two errors by scribe 2 of 𝓟 suggest that in both these cases Oliver wrote chose, not choose, in 𝓞.

Here in the Words of Mormon 1:5, when copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟, Oliver Cowdery himself apparently interpreted the verb as being in the past tense since he initially wrote chosed in 𝓟. He immediately erased the final d to give chose. The spelling chosed could stand for either of two nonstandard past-tense forms, choosed or chosed, given that Oliver would have spelled both choose and chose in 𝓞 as chose. Nonetheless, the fact that Oliver did not generally distinguish between choose and chose in his manuscript spellings means that for each case of the spelling chose we have to determine whether or not the intended reading is in the past tense. In the Words of Mormon 1:5, the present-tense choose is more consistent with the use of the present-tense forms throughout verses 4–6. Related to this present-tense usage is the fact that Mormon consistently refers to the small plates of Nephi as these plates, beginning in verse 3:

• The Words of Mormon 1:3–4
  • and now I speak somewhat concerning that which I have written for after that I had made an abridgment from the plates of Nephi down to the reign of this king Benjamin of which Amaleki spake I searched among the records which had been delivered into my hands and I found these plates which contained this small account of the prophets from Jacob down to the reign of this king Benjamin and also many of the words of Nephi and the things which are upon these plates pleasing me …

Then in verse 6, Mormon refers once more to these plates and says he is going to include them in his record:

• The Words of Mormon 1:6
  • but behold I shall take these plates which contain these prophesyings and revelations and put them with the remainder of my record

The present-tense usage here in verse 6 suggests that just before, in verse 5, Mormon is saying that he is now choosing to include these things as part of his record. The critical text will therefore accept the present-tense choose in verse 5.

In all cases except for here in the Words of Mormon 1:5, the 1830 compositor was able to determine the correct choice for Oliver’s spelling chose: he correctly set choose 12 times and chose 5 times. (In constructing these lists, I have ignored the spelling for the past participle, chosen. It is always spelled correctly in the text, 38 times, in both the manuscripts and all printed editions.)