Alma 11:21–22 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
therefore he saith unto Amulek will ye answer the questions which I shall put unto you and Amulek saith unto him yea [I will 1PS| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord which is in me

Here in Alma 11:22, the 1830 typesetter accidentally omitted the clause I will, the reading of the printer’s manuscript. Although these words are not extant in the original manuscript, spacing between extant fragments strongly supports their original occurrence in 𝓞. In accord with the reading in 𝓟, the 1908 RLDS edition restored the I will to the RLDS text.

There are other examples of yea if in the Book of Mormon text, but none with the same construction as the secondary, shortened reading in Alma 11:22. Elsewhere in the text, clauses headed by yea if either (1) refer to an immediately preceding conditional if-clause or (2) are completed by a resultive main clause—or both:

But in no other place do we have a stranded yea if clause—that is, without any preceding if-clause or any following main clause. The critical text will therefore restore the original reading in Alma 11:22: “yea I will if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord which is in me”.

Summary: Restore the I will in Alma 11:22 that the 1830 typesetter accidentally omitted.

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

References