Alma 5:54 Textual Variants

As discussed under Mosiah 27:3, there has been some tendency in the printed editions to replace the plural persecutions with the singular persecution. Here in Alma 5:54, the 1852 LDS edition made such a change, perhaps because the plural persecutions sounded particularly strange. Surrounding sentences refer to persisting in something, but in all those instances, there is no possibility of pluralization:

• Alma 5:53 will ye still persist in the wearing of costly apparel
• Alma 5:54 will ye persist in supposing that ye are better one than another
• Alma 5:55 and will you persist in turning your backs upon the poor
• Alma 5:56 all ye that will persist in your wickedness

The editor or typesetter for the 1852 edition may have expected something like “will ye persist in the persecuting of your brethren” (or “will ye persist in persecuting your brethren”) and thus replaced persecutions with the singular persecution.

There are examples of both singular persecution and plural persecutions in the original text, although the plural dominates (12 to 4); see the discussion under 2 Nephi 26:8. The critical text will restore the original plural persecutions here in Alma 5:54.