Alma 11:44 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
but all things shall be restored to its perfect frame as it is now or in the body and shall be brought and be raigned before the bar of Christ the Son and God the Father and the Holy Spirit which is one eternal God to be judged according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil

Ross Geddes (personal communication, 6 April 2006) suggests that this passage may contain an error. The extant text (based on the reading in 𝓟) reads “and shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”, which sounds a little odd since one wouldn’t think that “and [all things] shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”. (For the form raigned rather than arraigned, see the following discussion.) Geddes suggests that the original text read “and all shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”. 𝓞 is not extant for this particular portion of the text. The transcript of 𝓞, in volume 1 of the critical text, assumes that 𝓞 read as in 𝓟, without any all at the end of line 15:

( b)e lost but all things s(hal )

SO MUCH AS A HAIR OF THEIR HEADS L

or

( e) as it is now ^in the boddy (&) BE RESTORED TO ITS PERFECT FRAM

( d) before the bar of Christ th( )

SHALL BE BROUGHT & BE REIGNE E

( H)oly spirit which is [ ] ete(r ) SON & GOD THE FATHER & THE ONE NAL

But the spacing between extant fragments suggests that line 16 could have ended “in the boddy & all”, although the fit would have been tight:

or

( e) as it is now ^in the boddy (& ) BE RESTORED TO ITS PERFECT FRAM ALL

Now if all was originally there at the end of the line, it could have easily been skipped when copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟, especially since the following line of 𝓟 would have begun with shall, which ends in all. In addition, we know that Oliver tended to omit short words at the end of the line in 𝓞 as he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟 (for a list of established examples, see under Alma 11:21).

Evidence elsewhere in the text strongly supports the use of all when referring to the resurrection and the day of judgment; in fact, the passages that agree most closely with the language in Alma 11:44 read all shall, just as in the proposed emendation here:

Thus internal evidence supports emending the text here in Alma 11:44 to read “and all shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”.

Summary: Emend Alma 11:44 by inserting all before shall, giving “and all shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”; it is possible that all was in 𝓞 at the end of a line and was accidentally omitted by Oliver Cowdery when he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟.

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

References