Alma 36:4 Textual Variants

Lyle Fletcher (personal communication, 21 April 2004) suggests that the text here should read “and I would not that ye think that I know these things of myself ”. This part of the text is extant in 𝓞, so if these things was lost, it must have happened as Joseph Smith dictated the text to Oliver Cowdery. Usage elsewhere in the text supports the proposed inclusion of these things in the expression “to know of oneself ”:

• Alma 5:46 that I might know these things of myself
• Alma 38:6 I would not that ye should think that I know these things of myself
• Helaman 7:29 it is not of myself that I know these things

There are also a few instances where instead of these things in this construction we have a that- clause acting as the direct object:

• Alma 5:46 and now I do know of myself that they are true
• Alma 5:48 I know of myself that whatsoever I shall say unto you concerning that which is to come is true
• Alma 30:35 thou of thyself knowest that we receive no gain
• Helaman 15:7 ye do know of yourselves—for ye have witnessed it— that as many of them as are brought …

Yet in support of the text in Alma 36:4, there are two examples where the direct object is left unexpressed:

• 2 Nephi 9:28 for they set it aside / supposing they know of themselves
• Helaman 15:8 as many as have come to this—ye know of yourselves—are firm and steadfast in the faith

Given these last two examples, the critical text will accept the reading in Alma 36:4 where no direct object is expressed: “and I would not that ye think that I know of myself”.