Alma 27:27 Textual Variants

Here in the original manuscript, there is an extant fragment which records the last part, ered, of a word. This word was omitted when Oliver Cowdery copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟. This word was undoubtedly numbered, especially when we consider that the following conjoined predicate uses the adverb also with numbered: “and also numbered among the people which were of the church of God”. The original text here states that the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi were counted as Nephites and, in addition, as members of the church.

The current reading “and they were among the people of Nephi” seems trivial since in the previous verse the text explains that these people “went down into the land of Jershon and took possession of the land of Jershon” (Alma 27:26). The land of Jershon is in Nephite territory, so obviously one might conclude that these people would be “among the people of Nephi”. Yet actually this does not work. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies are not “among the Nephites” (that is, living in the midst of the Nephites); instead, they have their own land, the land of Jershon.

Here in Alma 27:27, the word numbered seems to be precisely what is missing from the reading. People are numbered with other people (33 times); we include in this tally two cases where the verb number has been accidentally replaced by remember (see under 1 Nephi 15:16 and Alma 1:24). Other theoretical possibilities for Alma 27:27 in lieu of numbered, such as considered, gathered, remembered, and scattered, are unlikely.