Alma 8:20 Textual Variants

The Book of Mormon sometimes allows an before h-initial words, thus treating the h in such cases as silent. See, for instance, the discussion under 2 Nephi 13:7 regarding a /an before h-initial words in the Isaiah quotations found in the Book of Mormon. Here in Alma 8:20, we have a before holy, what we expect in modern standard English. But the 1852 LDS edition replaced the a here with the more biblically styled an, and this use of an holy was maintained in the LDS text until the 1920 edition.

Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text, we have at least 15 examples of a holy. There is only one possible instance where the original text may have read an holy:

• Ether 13:5
  • it should be built up again [& 1|a ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] holy city unto the Lord

In this case, the earliest text (the printer’s manuscript) reads & holy, which implies that Joseph Smith dictated “an holy” but that Oliver Cowdery (the scribe in 𝓞) misinterpreted it as “and holy”. For a complete discussion, see under that passage.

Here in Alma 8:20, the source for the introduction of an before holy seems to be the biblically styled language in the previous verse, with two instances of an before h-initial words:

• Alma 8:19
  • and it came to pass that as he entered the city he was an hungered and he saith to a man will ye give to an humble servant of God something to eat

Historically, the archaic expression “to be an hungered” is not a case of the indefinite article an (see the discussion under anhungered in the Oxford English Dictionary). Interestingly, there are two other instances in the Book of Mormon of the archaic an hungered (in Alma 8:26 and Alma 10:7). On the other hand, 2 Nephi 27:3 reads “a hungry man” in a quotation of Isaiah 29:8, which reads “an hungry man” in the King James Bible (see the discussion under 2 Nephi 27:3). As far as humble is concerned, there are no other examples in the Book of Mormon of the adjective humble preceded by the indefinite article.

The King James Bible generally favors an before h-initial words, but a is sometimes found. For example, there are two instances of a holy (in Leviticus 27:23 and Isaiah 30:29), in contrast to 41 instances of an holy. For hungered, hungry, and humble, the King James Bible has only an:

an hungered 9 times (all in the synoptic Gospels)
an hungry 1 time (in Isaiah 29:8)
an humble 1 time (in Proverbs 16:19)

Note that the King James Bible spells an hungered as an hungred.

In choosing between a and an before h-initial words, the critical text will in each case follow the earliest textual sources. Thus here in Alma 8:20 we have an instance of a holy.