Alma 34:28 Textual Variants

The 1840 edition increased the parallelism in the text by changing “the sick and afflicted” to “the sick and the afflicted”. This change may be due to Joseph Smith’s editing for that edition, or it may simply be a typo. This reading with the repeated the continued in the RLDS textual tradition until 1908.

Elsewhere in the text all other examples of sick conjoined with afflicted have the repeated determiner (or no determiner at all for either conjunct):

• 1 Nephi 11:31 (NULL, NULL)
  • and I beheld multitudes of people which were sick and which were afflicted of all manner of diseases and with devils and unclean spirits
• Jacob 2:19 (the, the)
  • and ye will seek them for the intent to do good to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry and to liberate the captive and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted
• Alma 1:27 (the, the)
  • and they did impart of their substance every man according to that which he had to the poor and the needy and the sick and the afflicted
• Alma 4:12 (NULL, NULL)
  • turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those which were hungry and those which were athirst and those which were sick and afflicted
• 3 Nephi 17:9 (their, their)
  • all the multitude with one accord did go forth with their sick and their afflicted and their lame and with their blind and with their dumb and with all they that were afflicted in any manner
• Mormon 8:37 (the, the)
  • for behold ye do love money and your substance and your fine apparel and the adorning of your churches more than ye love the poor and the needy / the sick and the afflicted
• Mormon 8:39 (the, the)
  • why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life and yet suffer the hungry and the needy and the naked and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you and notice them not

These examples strongly suggest that the 1840 reading may in fact be correct. Nonetheless, the original manuscript is extant here in Alma 34:28, and there is definitely no the before afflicted in the original manuscript (or the printer’s).

More generally, there is some evidence for variation with respect to the repeated the in conjuncts. See, for instance, the discussion regarding “the wickedness and (the) abominations” under Mosiah 3:7, where it is argued that for each case of conjoined wickedness and abominations, the earliest text should be followed in deciding whether a determiner is repeated or not. Given the possibility of variation, the earliest reading for Alma 34:28 should be maintained (“the sick and afflicted”), the reading of the original manuscript.