Alma 16:1 Textual Variants

Here Oliver Cowdery supralinearly inserted there in 𝓟, probably because 𝓞 had the there. There is no change in the level of ink flow, so the correction was probably almost immediate. It is theoretically possible that the there is due to editing, given that the preceding present participial clause also reads there having (“there having been much peace in the land of Zarahemla”). Besides these two instances in Alma 16:1, there are other examples of there having in the text:

• The Words of Mormon 1:16
  • and after there having been much contentions and many dissensions away unto the Lamanites …
• Alma 6:7
  • there having been a city built which was called the city of Gideon

Since the correction is virtually immediate in Alma 16:1, the critical text will assume that the second occurrence of there having in Alma 16:1 is the original reading and was not due to editing on Oliver Cowdery’s part.