The original and printer’s manuscripts as well as the 1830 edition have “our near brethren”. The 1837 edition deleted the near, perhaps accidentally since the change was not marked by Joseph Smith in 𝓟. The 1908 RLDS edition restored it to the RLDS text. The reading without the near (“and many of them are our brethren”) seems like a gratuitous statement since the Book of Mormon text considers all the Nephites as well as the Lamanites as “brethren” (that is, as related). Moreover, the original text states that only “many of them”—not all of them—“are our near brethren”. Perhaps many of the Zoramites belong to the same Nephite tribe as Alma and his fellow missionaries. Note, for instance, the explicit reference (in Jacob 1:13, 4 Nephi 1:36–38, and Mormon 1:8–9) to the division of the Nephites and Lamanites into tribes based on the original members of Lehi’s immigrating group:
Of course, the Zoramites referred to in these tribal divisions are the descendants of Zoram, the servant of Laban, while the Zoramites referred to in the book of Alma (from Alma 30:59 through Alma 52:33)—and also once in 3 Nephi 1:29—originally settled in the land of Antionum (see Alma 31:3) and named themselves, it would appear, after their own leader Zoram rather than the original Zoram:
One could speculate that these Zoramites were largely made up of people belonging to the original Zoramite tribe, but the text itself does not make that connection. Even so, Alma’s reference to many of the Zoramites in the land of Antionum as being “our near brethren” could mean that some of these Zoramites belonged to the same tribe as Alma and his fellow missionaries (one might suspect the Nephite tribe).
Another possible interpretation, pointed out by David Calabro (personal communication), is that the term brethren could mean ‘religious brethren’, so that “our near brethren” in Alma 31:35 could be referring to former fellow members of the church who had been led astray. In support of this kind of usage, Calabro cites an 1877 non-LDS religious essay “To the Work”, published in The Church Advocate 41/46 (16 May 1877): 3 (found on ):
Neither have we a right to bring availing accusation
against our near brethren in the Lord ...
The Book of Mormon has one other occurrence of near that refers to relationship—and that example definitely refers to kinship rather than religious brotherhood:
This example suggests a third possible interpretation for Alma 31:35—namely, among the Zoramites there were many close personal relatives of Alma and his fellow missionaries. The use of adjectival near to refer to close relatives is noted in the Oxford English Dictionary under definition 1 for the adjective near, with the following examples (accidentals regularized here), including one from the King James Bible:
There are quite a few examples in the King James Bible that use near in reference to close family relationship:
There is one other biblical use of near with the meaning ‘close’, but it refers to friends rather than kin:
This last example shows that near brethren in Alma 31:35 could be referring to closely associated church brethren rather than near relatives. Of course, as far as determining the original text of the Book of Mormon is concerned, it doesn’t really matter who “our near brethren” is referring to; the important point here is that the modifier near is definitely intended and will be restored in the critical text.
Summary: Restore in Alma 31:35 the original near in “many of them are our near brethren”; the near occurs in the earliest textual sources and is clearly intended, no matter how we interpret the referent of “our near brethren”.