Alma 1:26 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and [ 1BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|now A] when their priests left their labor to impart the word of God unto the people the people also left their labors to hear the word of God

Here the 1830 typesetter accidentally added the narrative connector now, perhaps because of its frequent usage in the nearby preceding text, although in none of these cases do we have a preceding and:

Of course, and now is very frequent as a narrative connector in the Book of Mormon, occurring about 650 times in the text. For another example where now was accidentally added after and, see under Mosiah 19:5; there Oliver Cowdery momentarily added the now as he was copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟. In each case involving and and now as narrative connectors, the critical text will follow the earliest textual reading. Here in Alma 1:26, the 1837 edition removed the intrusive now, probably because Joseph Smith noticed that 𝓟 itself lacked the now when he compared 𝓟 with the 1830 edition in preparation for the 1837 edition.

Summary: Maintain in Alma 1:26 the original connector and without the now that the 1830 typesetter accidentally added.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 3

References