Alma 12:36 Textual Variants

Here we have two instances involving conjunctive repetition of prepositions. The earliest text read “according to his word in the last provocation as well as in the first”. In setting the 1837 edition, the compositor seems to have accidentally omitted the repeated in here. Perhaps he was influenced by the phraseology later in the verse: “according to his word unto the last death as well as the first” (where the preposition unto is not repeated before the first). It should be noted here that scribe 2 of 𝓟 miswrote the preposition unto as until but Oliver Cowdery corrected it to unto when he proofed 𝓟 against 𝓞; in this instance, 𝓞 is extant and reads unto. (Here enough of 𝓞 is extant to also determine that Oliver initially wrote simply unto death in 𝓞 but then almost immediately corrected the reading there by supralinearly inserting the last.)

Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text, when as well as is used to conjoin prepositional phrases, the preposition is repeated in almost every case:

• 1 Nephi 13:41
  • and the words of the Lamb shall be made known in the records of thy seed as well as in the records of the twelve apostles of the Lamb
• Alma 24:14
  • that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations
• Alma 39:18
  • that the plan of redemption should be made known unto this people as well as unto their children
• Alma 56:16
  • yea and they were depressed in body as well as in spirit
• Helaman 11:6
  • and the whole earth was smitten even among the Lamanites as well as among the Nephites
• Helaman 16:18
  • why will he not shew himself unto us as well as unto they which shall be at Jerusalem
• Helaman 16:19
  • yea why will he not shew himself in this land as well as in the land of Jerusalem

In one complex case, the preposition of is, quite naturally, not repeated before the words:

• Moroni 8:29
  • they must perish soon unto the fulfilling of the prophecies which was spoken by the prophets as well as the words of our Savior himself

The only other instance of as well as where the preposition is not repeated is here in Alma 12:36— that is, for the second occurrence of as well as in this verse: “therefore according to his word unto the last death as well as the first”. One wonders here in Alma 12:36 if the original text also repeated the unto (in other words, perhaps the original text read “according to his word unto the last death as well as unto the first”). The critical text will, however, not make this emendation since the repetition of the preposition is not required in English. On the other hand, earlier in the verse, the original repeated preposition in will be restored: “according to his word in the last provocation as well as in the first”. In each case, we will follow the earliest textual sources. The original manuscript is not extant for either case of the possibly repeated preposition here in Alma 12:36; the spacing between extant fragments is fairly large, with the result that in both cases there is not enough evidence to argue either for or against the occurrence of the repeated preposition in 𝓞. Hence we have to rely on the reading in 𝓟 for this passage.