Alma 34:36 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and this I know because the Lord [hath 01ABCDEFGIJLMNOQRT|has HKPS] said he dwelleth not in unholy temples but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell yea and he [hath 0A|hath >js has 1|has BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] also said that the righteous should sit down in his kingdom

Normally, the grammatical emendation of hath to has, when found in the text, is the result of Joseph Smith’s editing for the 1837 edition. In general, this editing was applied unevenly, as in this verse (where only the second instance of hath was changed to has in the 1837 edition). With regard to the first instance of hath, the 1874 RLDS made the change to has, perhaps in an attempt to increase the parallelism between these two phrases that refer to what the Lord said:

original text the Lord hath said ... yea and he hath also said

1837 text the Lord hath said ... yea and he has also said

RLDS text the Lord has said ... yea and he has also said

Of course, the critical text will restore the original text, with its parallelism (hath both times rather than has). For further discussion, see under infl al endings in volume 3.

Summary: Restore the two original occurrences of hath in Alma 34:36—and whenever else hath is found in the earliest textual sources.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 4

References