Alma 18:18–19 Textual Variants

The sentence beginning verse 19, “Ammon answered and said unto him”, could be missing an initial and. Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text, narrative uses of “X answereth/answered” are almost always connected to the previous text by and (15 times). There is only one case where the connective element is something other than and; in that one case, the connective element is now followed by a subordinate clause:

• Alma 20:19
  • now when Ammon had said these words unto him he answered him saying …

So the use here in Alma 18:18 of “X answereth/answered” without any connective element is quite unique for the Book of Mormon. Even so, the and is not required, as can be seen from narrative uses of “X saith/said” in the text. In almost every case, there is a connective element, usually and, before “X saith/said”; yet there are two instances of “X saith/said” without any connective element:

• Alma 18:33–34
  • and king Lamoni saith I believe all these things which thou hast spoken art thou sent from God Ammon saith unto him I am a man
• Alma 46:22–23
  • now this was the covenant which they made and they cast their garments at the feet of Moroni saying we covenant with our God that we shall be destroyed even as our brethren in the land northward if we shall fall into transgression yea he may cast us at the feet of our enemies even as we have cast our garments at thy feet to be trodden under foot if we should fall into transgression Moroni saith unto them behold we are a remnant of the seed of Jacob …

These examples suggest that not only can “X saith/said” begin a sentence in discourse narratives, but so can “X answereth/answered”. Note further that in all three examples without a connecting and, the subject is a name rather than a pronoun (thus Moroni in Alma 46:23 and Ammon here in Alma 18:19 as well as in Alma 18:34). In other words, there may be a tendency for the connective and to be lacking when the sentence begins with a name rather than with a pronoun. The critical text will therefore leave the unique instance here in Alma 18:19 of “X answereth/answered” without any and (or any other connective element).

In this regard, biblical usage in the King James Bible is more mixed than Book of Mormon usage. Consider, for instance, the conjoined predicate “answered and said”. In the Old Testament, “answered and said” almost always has and or some other connector (such as then, but, or furthermore) in front of the subject. The only exceptions are ten occurrences in the book of Daniel, as in “the king answered and said” (Daniel 2:8). In the New Testament, usage is basically evenly divided between having some connector (and, but, or then) versus none (52 to 43). Thus the current text for Alma 18:19 without any and preceding “Ammon answered” is quite acceptable in terms of King James language.