The scribes had difficulty with the long phrase “the Xth year of the reign of the judges”. Although 𝓞 is not extant here in Alma 28:7, the lacuna between extant fragments is not long enough for the whole expression. Oliver Cowdery, the scribe here in 𝓞, probably omitted “of the judges” initially, although theoretically it is also possible that he omitted “of the reign”. In either case, he probably supplied the missing phrase supralinearly in 𝓞 since the whole phrase “of the reign of the judges” is found in the printer’s manuscript. A similar case where the missing phrase could be either “of the reign” or “of the judges” is found nearby:
But there are four sufficiently extant instances in 𝓞 that clearly show Oliver Cowdery initially omitting “of the judges”:
In the last of these, Oliver seems to have also omitted “of the reign” in 𝓞 since 𝓟 (as well as all the printed editions) lacks “of the reign”. Whether Oliver ever supplied “of the reign” supralinearly in 𝓞 is not determinable but is presumed in the transcription for 𝓞. For discussion of this complicated case, see under Alma 54:1.
Finally, in two cases in 𝓞, we can deduce that “of the judges” was initially omitted since “of the reign” is sufficiently extant in 𝓞 and is written inline, while there is insufficient room in the lacuna for “of the judges”:
Thus all of the extant evidence in 𝓞 (a total of six cases) argues that Oliver Cowdery tended to initially omit “of the judges” as he took down Joseph Smith’s dictation. The critical text will assume he made the same initial error here in Alma 28:7 as well as in Alma 30:2.
Also here in Alma 28:7, the 1874 RLDS edition introduced a simple textual error in the extended phrase “of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi”—namely, that edition replaced the over with of, probably because the preposition of occurs so frequently in the extended phrase (“of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi”). The RLDS text has never corrected this error in Alma 28:7, although 𝓟 reads over. Elsewhere in the original text, there are at least 45 occurrences of “of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi”, but there are none with of instead of over. There is one other place where over was replaced by of, but only momentarily:
A similar initial error is found in the expression “the reign of the kings over the people of Nephi”:
The critical text will maintain the consistent use of over in the extended phrase “of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi”.
Summary: Maintain in Alma 28:7 the extended phrase “of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi”; here Oliver Cowdery seems to have initially omitted “of the judges” in 𝓞 but then supralinearly supplied it; the 1874 RLDS edition accidentally replaced the over with of.