Mosiah 18:33 Textual Variants

The 1837 edition deleted the indefinite article a in the phrase “to a rebellion”, perhaps intentionally since in modern English we expect “to stir up someone to rebellion”. Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon, most uses of the singular rebellion are noncount (16 times), as in the phrases “in open rebellion” (Mosiah 2:37), “the weapons of their rebellion” (Alma 23:7), and “rise up in rebellion” (Alma 61:11). There are four occurrences of the plural form rebellions, which is, of course, a count noun form. There are also two clear cases of a singular rebellion that functions as a count noun:

• 1 Nephi 7:7
  • and it came to pass that in the which rebellion they were desirous to return unto the land of Jerusalem
• Ether 11:15
  • there arose a rebellion among the people

There is nothing strange about the use of the indefinite article a in the last example. There is one case where the singular rebellion can be interpreted as either count or noncount:

• Alma 57:33
  • and it came to pass because of their rebellion we did cause that our swords should come upon them

Finally, there is one example which is quite parallel to Mosiah 18:33:

• Mosiah 10:6
  • and he began to stir his people up in [ 1ABCDEFGIJLMNOPQRST|a HK] rebellion against my people

In this example, the first and second RLDS editions (1874 and 1892) had the indefinite article a (“in a rebellion”), probably by accident. But this insertion seems to indicate that in the 19th century the use of the indefinite article in the expression “in a rebellion” was possible. Nonetheless, this passage in Mosiah 10:6 did not apparently have the indefinite article originally (see the discussion under Mosiah 10:6).

It is possible that here in Mosiah 18:33, the a in “to a rebellion” was a copying error, perhaps influenced by the preceding occurrence of a in “Alma was a stirring up the people”. This prepositional a was consciously deleted by the 1830 typesetter since he marked its deletion (in pencil) in the printer’s manuscript. (For discussion of such usage as “a stirring”, see under 1 Nephi 8:28; also see the full list of examples under prepositional a in volume 3.)

In Early Modern English, the phrase “to a rebellion” seems to have been fairly frequent, as exemplified by the following examples culled online from the Oxford English Dictionary and Literature Online , with accidentals as cited:

• John Ford (1633)
  • And this same whorson Court ease is temptation To a rebellion in the veines:
• George Buck (1646)
  • His secret drift was, to apt and prepare the Duke to a Rebellion at any hand.
• Aphra Behn (1683)
  • And soon will raise them up to a Rebellion;
• Mary Pix (1705)
  • So long I’ve learn’d and Practic’d to Obey, I cannot force my Tongue to a Rebellion,
• John Dennis (1709)
  • The News of your Death has been maliciously spread thro’ the Camp, to animate the Legions to a Rebellion;

Thus there is support for the earliest reading in Mosiah 18:33 (“to a rebellion”), although none of it is contemporary with Joseph Smith.

Ultimately, the critical text will rely on the earliest textual sources for determining whether rebellion should occur with the indefinite article or not. Although the reading “to a rebellion” sounds odd in modern English, it seems to have been intended here in Mosiah 18:33.