Alma 7:6 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
but behold I trust that ye are not in a state of so much unbelief as were your brethren I trust that ye are not lifted up in the pride of your hearts yea I trust that ye have not set your hearts upon riches and the vain things of the world yea I trust that [ you 1ABCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|ye D] do not worship idols but that ye do worship the true and the living God and that ye look forward for the remission of your sins

Here in the 1841 British edition, the one instance of subject you was replaced with ye. As discussed under Mosiah 4:14, ye is the normal subject form for the second person plural pronoun, but there are nonetheless many examples of you in subject position. Here in Alma 7:6, the change of you to ye in “I trust that you do not worship idols” was probably due to the influence of five surrounding instances of that ye, including three preceding ones of I trust that ye. Interestingly, the subsequent LDS edition (1849) restored the original you, most probably by reference to an earlier printed edition. One wonders whether this one instance of that you in the earliest text for this passage is an early error for that ye. But since the original text allows the subject pronoun you, the critical text will follow the earliest textual source here. For further discussion, see under ye in volume 3.

Summary: Maintain the one case of subject you in Alma 7:6; in this instance, the earliest textual sources support you rather than the ye found elsewhere in the verse.

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

References