Mosiah 4:22 Textual Variants

In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith here replaced the conjunction or and its associated negative not with the conjunction nor. A similar example of this kind of editing is found in Mosiah 2:13; there the 1920 LDS edition replaced a case of or with nor and removed a following not (and also changed the word order), as follows:

original text (according to the printer’s manuscript and most editions)

or even I have not suffered that ye should commit any manner of wickedness

revised text (the LDS text since 1920)

nor even have I suffered that ye should commit any manner of wickedness

In this case, just like in Mosiah 4:22, there is a preceding negative clause (see the discussion under Mosiah 2:13). There are two other examples (both in the book of Mosiah) where a negative clause is followed by the conjunction or and an associated not:

• Mosiah 1:5
  • and we should have been like unto our brethren the Lamanites which know nothing concerning these things or even do not believe them when they are taught them
• Mosiah 23:7
  • ye shall not esteem one flesh above another or one man shall not think himself above another

To be consistent with the editing in Mosiah 2:13 and Mosiah 4:22, the above two passages could have been edited (but have not been) to the following:

• Mosiah 1:5 (possible grammatical revision)
  • and we should have been like unto our brethren the Lamanites which know nothing concerning these things nor do even believe them when they are taught them
• Mosiah 23:7 (possible grammatical revision)
  • ye shall not esteem one flesh above another nor shall one man think himself above another

In each of these hypothetical revisions, the or is replaced by nor, the not is deleted, and the helping verb is moved closer to the nor. The critical text will, of course, retain the two unedited instances of “or … not” as well as restore the two that originally occurred in Mosiah 2:13 and Mosiah 4:22. For a complete discussion regarding negation in the original text, see negation in volume 3.

Also in his editing of this passage, Joseph Smith removed the -eth inflectional ending from repenteth since the subject for this verb is the second person plural ye rather than a third person singular. In the original Book of Mormon text, the -(e)th ending stands more for the biblical style than for the actual third person singular present-tense ending. For some discussion regarding the occasional use of the inflection ending -(e)th with the second person plural ye, see under infl al endings in volume 3. The critical text will, of course, restore the original -eth inflection here in Mosiah 4:22 (“or repenteth not”).