Since the preposition to was repeated in the printer’s manuscript (“he began to the creation of the world and also to the creation of Adam”), its use here in Alma 18:36 appears to be fully intentional. In modern English, however, we expect at, with, or from as the preposition in this context. The 1852 LDS edition made the change from to to at, and the 1874 RLDS edition followed that same change. Based on the reading of 𝓟, the 1908 RLDS edition reverted to the original to, but in 1953 the RLDS text adopted once more the preposition at.
Elsewhere the Book of Mormon uses the prepositions at and from when the verb begin is used to refer to a topic or to a list of items:
Note, in particular, the second example, which parallels Alma 18:36 in that both refer to the preaching by the sons of Mosiah to Lamanite kings. Sometimes in the text the use of at itself is strange for modern English readers:
For this example, modern speakers prefer the preposition with rather than at. But it should be noted that “to begin with something” is not found in the Book of Mormon text at all.
We get a similar use of at and from with the verb begin in the King James Bible, but (as with the Book of Mormon) there are no instances of “to begin with something”:
It should also be noted that there are no instances in the King James Bible of “to begin to something”.
However, there are examples of “to begin to something” in the history of the English language. Here are two examples from Literature Online , one from the early 17th century, the other from the 19th century (here the accidentals are regularized):
For these two instances, we would expect the preposition with in modern English.
It is also worth noting that the original text of the Book of Mormon has a number of places where we might expect at or in in modern English. There are four readings with original to that were emended to at in the 1920 LDS edition:
And there are four more readings with original to that were emended to in in the 1920 LDS edition:
All eight of these examples refer to geography rather than topics of discussion, and seven of them involve the verb arrive. It should also be pointed out that there is one example involving arrive where the preposition is at:
The original manuscript is extant for this example and it reads at. In this case, Oliver Cowdery made an interesting error when he copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟: he initially wrote to, but then virtually immediately he crossed out the to and supralinearly inserted the correct at (there is no change in the level of ink flow). We could interpret this momentary error as evidence that to was not an especially difficult reading for Oliver or as evidence that he had become used to the expression “to arrive to a place”. In any event, to was sometimes used in the Book of Mormon text where we, as modern readers, expect at.
The critical text will maintain the original preposition to in Alma 18:36 despite its difficulty. In the 1837 edition, however, the repeated to was omitted, perhaps accidentally. Prepositional repetition in conjunctive structures is common in the Book of Mormon text, as explained under conjunctive repetition in volume 3. The critical text will restore not only the to in Alma 18:36 but also its repetition.
Summary: Restore the original preposition to and its repetition in Alma 18:36: “he began to the creation of the world and also to the creation of Adam”, despite the difficulty of the preposition to with the verb begin.