Alma 26:34 Textual Variants

One wonders here if the word after hatred is supposed to be to. There are no other instances of “hatred to X” in the Book of Mormon text. Here in Alma 26:34, the original manuscript is extant for all of this text except for the word to, which would have occurred at the very end of a line. Unfortunately, the edge of the paper for this leaf of 𝓞 has been worn off so that the last one or two letters (at least) at the end of almost every line are no longer extant. We do know that Oliver Cowdery sometimes miscopied a word at the end of a line in his copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟 (see the list under Alma 11:21); one relevant example involves a short preposition:

• 1 Nephi 8:27
  • and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those which had came [up 0|at 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and were partaking of the fruit

So if the original preposition for Alma 26:34 was not to at the end of the line in 𝓞, what could it have been? Elsewhere in the text, we have seven occurrences of “hatred towards X”. However, towards will not fit at the end of the line in the original manuscript, although it is possible that Oliver Cowdery accidentally miswrote to instead of towards in the original manuscript. Don Brugger (personal communication) points out that the to at the end of the line could have facilitated the accidental omission of the -wards that should have been written at the beginning of the next line.

Another possibility for Alma 26:34 is “hatred against X”, which occurs four times in the text, including once where the X includes sin: “but teach them an everlasting hatred against sin and iniquity” (Alma 37:32). Of course, against will not fit in the lacuna at the end of the line in 𝓞.

Yet another possibility is that the word could have been the preposition of: “because of their love and of their hatred of sin”. This reading works well for modern English readers. And of would fit just as well as to in the lacuna at the end of the line. There is also one use of “hatred of X” in the text:

• 3 Nephi 7:11
  • yet they were united in the hatred of those who had entered into a covenant to destroy the government

So of is definitely possible in Alma 26:34.

Alison Coutts (personal communication) suggests one more possibility, the preposition for (thus “hatred for sin”). As with of, there would be room in 𝓞 for that preposition, but there are no instances of “hatred for X” elsewhere in the text.

In defense of to, one could argue that the to in “their hatred to sin” is not a preposition but the adverbial infinitive marker; that is, “their hatred to sin” is related to “they hated to sin”. This infinitival reading for “to sin” seems considerably more acceptable than the prepositional to (which seems more like a mistake for towards, against, or of ). Given that this infinitival interpretation is possible, the phrase “their hatred to sin” should probably be left unchanged, although the possibility remains that to is an early error in the transmission of the text.