Mosiah 23:17 Textual Variants

The singular it here in the original text acts as an existential it, not as a pronoun for the preceding none. Except for this it, the sentence is in the plural: “and none were consecrated except it were just men” (the second were is actually a subjunctive form, not a plural indicative form). In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith replaced the existential it with the plural pronoun they, which directly refers to the preceding plural none.

There are several other examples of this existential usage in the original text, none of which have had the existential it edited to the personal pronoun they or he; moreover, in each case the existential it is followed by the subjunctive were:

• Mosiah 6:2
  • and it came to pass that there was not one soul except it were little children but what had entered into the covenant and had taken upon them the name of Christ
• Mosiah 24:21
  • for they were in bondage and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God
• Alma 36:2
  • for they were in bondage and none could deliver them except it were the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob
• Helaman 8:21
  • will ye say that the sons of Zedekiah were not slain all except it were Muloch

In the first of these (Mosiah 6:2), it were is completed by a plural noun phrase (“little children”) and in this respect is precisely like the original reading for Mosiah 23:17. Moreover, in all these examples the main clause at the beginning contains a universal quantifier, either negative (none or not one) or positive (all ). Clearly, the original usage in Mosiah 23:17 is intended and will therefore be restored in the critical text.