Mosiah 11:6 Textual Variants

The 1837 edition switched the word order after the connective adverb thus, from “thus were they” to “thus they were”. However, Joseph Smith did not mark this change in the printer’s manuscript. Nor is there any evidence elsewhere for Joseph Smith (or anyone else) reversing the word order for this particular phrase. The text definitely prefers the noninverted order “thus they were” (with 17 examples). But there are two other examples of the inverted order “thus were they”:

• Mosiah 18:8
  • behold here is the waters of Mormon for thus were they called
• Alma 49:20
  • and thus were they prepared to defend themselves against the Lamanites

Interestingly, the second of these examples contrasts with an instance of the noninverted word order in the same verse:

• Alma 49:20
  • thus they were prepared
    —yea a body of their most strong men with their swords and their slings— to smite down all who should attempt to come into their place of security by the place of entrance and thus were they prepared to defend themselves against the Lamanites

There is nothing inappropriate about the inverted word order “thus were they”. The critical text will restore the original reading in Mosiah 11:6.