Mosiah 23:16–17 Textual Variants

Karl Franson (personal communication, 10 October 2003) suggests that the clause “except it were by him from God” may contain an error or, in any event, should be read as meaning ‘except it were given him from God’. Under such an interpretation, the him here would refer to the preceding generic pronoun none, not to the earlier Alma. Part of the difficulty here results from the versification break. Verse 17 begins with “and it came to pass that”, and therefore Alma, the antecedent for the him in “except it were by him from God”, occurs in the previous verse, 16. The result is that the reader tends to think that by him refers to none, which is in verse 17. Of course, in the following clause (“therefore he consecrated all their priests and all their teachers”), the he clearly refers to Alma. The him in “except it were by him” refers to Alma since he was the one who gave others the authority to preach or to teach.

The usage “except/save it were by X” means ‘except it were by means of X’ or ‘except it were through X’, as in the following examples:

• 1 Nephi 17:31 and there was not any thing done save it were by his word
• 2 Nephi 29:6 have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews
• 2 Nephi 31:19 for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ
• 2 Nephi 32:2 how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost
• Alma 49:18 the Lamanites could not get into their forts of security … save it were by the entrance
• 3 Nephi 15:23 that I should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the Holy Ghost

Thus the clause “except it were by him from God” means ‘except it were through Alma from God’. The invariant reading here in Mosiah 23:17, although strange, is correct and means that no one became a priest or a teacher unless Alma consecrated him.