Alma 34:12 Textual Variants

Here the earliest text, the original manuscript itself, reads “there can nothing which is short of an infinite atonement”. It appears that the main verb be is missing here, which Joseph Smith added in his editing for the 1837 edition (thus changing “there can nothing” to “there can be nothing”). Note that Oliver Cowdery, when he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟, initially wrote “there is nothing” in 𝓟, which will work; but virtually immediately Oliver crossed out the is and supralinearly inserted can (there is no change in the level of ink flow). Yet he supplied only the modal can, the reading in 𝓞, not can be.

Every other existential there-clause involving the word nothing has a main verb, normally the static be (the dynamic come occurs once); four of these (each marked below with an asterisk), take a modal verb (should, can, or could ):

• 1 Nephi 18:20 and there was nothing save it were the power of God which …
• 2 Nephi 30:17 there is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed
• 2 Nephi 30:17 and there is nothing which is sealed upon earth save it shall be loosed
• Enos 1:23 and there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness …
• Enos 1:23 I say there was nothing short of these things
• Omni 1:25 for there is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord
• * Mosiah 2:14 and that there should nothing come upon you which was grievious to be borne
• Mosiah 25:22 for there was nothing preached in all the churches except it were repentance and faith in God
• Mosiah 27:18 there was nothing save the power of God that could shake the earth
• *Alma 36:21 there can be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as was my pains
• *Alma 36:21 there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy
• 3 Nephi 6:5 and now there was nothing in all the land to hinder the people …
• *3 Nephi 19:25 yea even there could be nothing upon earth so white

Note that there are two cases of “there can be nothing” and one of “there could be nothing”, which argues that if be is to be supplied in Alma 34:12, it should come before nothing, not after it.

There is also evidence that the be verb could be omitted by Oliver Cowdery, as in the following existential there-clause:

• Moroni 7:42 (Oliver Cowdery’s initial error in 𝓟)
  • for without faith there cannot [NULL >+ be 1|be ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] any hope

Thus one could argue that Oliver made the same error in the original manuscript for Alma 34:12, writing “there can nothing which is short of an infinite atonement” and never correcting it, even when he copied the passage into 𝓟.

It is true that one could argue for can without be based on the fact that in earlier English, from Old English up into the 1800s, can could occur as a main verb with the meaning ‘to know’ or ‘to know how’. The Oxford English Dictionary (under definitions 1 and 2) lists a number of examples, such as Walter Scott’s “Thou canst well of wood-craft” (1825). But this meaning of ‘to know (how)’ does not work at all in the existential there-clause here in Alma 34:12. Thus the odds are that “there can nothing” is an early error for “there can be nothing”. The critical text will here follow Joseph Smith’s emendation for the 1837 edition.