Alma 11:2–3 Textual Variants

Originally, in describing king Mosiah’s judicial system, the first three verses of Alma 11 show a mixture of present-tense and past-tense verb forms. Verse 1 has only past-tense forms:

• Alma 11:1
  • now it was in the law of Mosiah that every man which was a judge of the law or which was appointed to be judges should receive his wages according to the time which they labored to judge those which were brought before them to be judged

But verse 2 starts out with a present-tense oweth (“now if a man oweth another …”). This presenttense oweth is then followed by some more past-tense forms: “and he would not pay that which he did owe / he was complained of to the judge and the judge executed authority and sent forth officers that the man should be brought before him”. But then the present-tense forms return to the text: “and he judgeth the man according to the law and the evidences which are brought against him and thus the man is compelled to pay that which he oweth … and the judge receiveth for his wages according to his time”.

In the editing for the 1837 edition, the present-tense forms in Alma 11:2–3 were consistently edited to the past tense; some of these changes were marked by Joseph Smith in 𝓟. Such mixtures in tense can be found elsewhere in the original Book of Mormon text, as in the following example which also involves a description of the judicial system and reads murdereth was in the original text:

• Alma 1:18
  • and they durst not steal for fear of the law for such were punished neither durst they rob nor murder for he that murdereth was punished unto death

As explained under that passage, the critical text will restore such instances of mixture in tense.