Mosiah 10:7–8 Textual Variants

but [I having >js I had 1|I having A|I had BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] sent my spies out round about the land of Shemlon that I might discover their preparations that I might guard against them that they might not come upon my people and destroy them and it came to pass that they came up upon the north of the land of Shilom

Here the original text has an initial participial clause that is incomplete. The nonfinite verb form having was changed to the finite had by Joseph Smith in his editing for the 1837 edition, thus making the initial clause complete. On the other hand, the similar incomplete participial clause at the beginning of Zeniff ’s record has never been edited to make that clause finite:

Mosiah 9:1–2
- I Zeniff having been taught in all the language of the Nephites and having had a knowledge of the land of Nephi or of the land of our fathers’ first inheritance and I having been sent as a spy among the Lamanites that I might spy out their forces that our army might come upon them and destroy them but when I saw that which was good among them I was desirous that they should not be destroyed therefore I contended with my brethren in the wilderness

Removing the participial clause in Mosiah 9:1 would have required changing three occurrences of having, while here in Mosiah 10:7 it was necessary to change only a single having. In any event, the original Book of Mormon text has examples of incomplete participial clauses. For a third example, see the discussion regarding Alma 9:19–22 under Mosiah 9:1–2.

Summary: Restore the original participial clause in Mosiah 10:7; such usage is fairly common in the text, even when the clause is left incomplete.

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

References