Alma 36:21 Textual Variants

One wonders here why the repeated so in the first part of the verse is not found in the second part; that is, we have “so exquisite and so bitter” versus “so exquisite and sweet”. The original manuscript is basically extant for this whole passage; the so definitely appears before bitter but not before sweet. In theory, there are two possibilities for error: an extra so was added in the first case or the so was omitted in the second case. The error, if there is one, would have occurred as Joseph Smith dictated the text to Oliver Cowdery.

Internal evidence definitely argues that if there is an error, it is the repeated so in the first
case, “so exquisite and so bitter”. Elsewhere in the text, when simple adjectives are conjoined, the so is never repeated (I include here the second case from Alma 36:21):

• Alma 36:21 there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy
• 3 Nephi 3:3 that ye should be so foolish and vain
• 3 Nephi 3:16 and so great and marvelous were the words and prophecies
  of Lachoneus
• 3 Nephi 17:16 the eye hath never seen neither hath the ear heard before
  so great and marvelous things 
• 3 Nephi 17:17 neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things 3 Nephi 19:34 so great and marvelous were the words which he prayed
• Ether 14:21 and so great and lasting had been the war Ether 14:22 so swift and speedy was the war

There are also nonrepeating instances of “so ” where simple nouns are conjoined:

• Alma 7:5 by the cause of so much afflictions and sorrow
• Alma 45:12 because they shall sin against so great light and knowledge
• Alma 62:35 the cause of so much war and bloodshed
• Alma 62:44 because of so many wars and contentions

Elsewhere there are examples of the repeated so, but only in more complex conjuncts involving the repetition of “so ”:

• 1 Nephi 7:8 ye are so hard in your hearts and so blind in your minds
• Alma 9:19 having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto them
• Alma 58:32 to maintain so great a number of cities and so great possessions
• Alma 62:35 the cause of so much war and bloodshed yea and so much famine
• Helaman 1:18 because of so much contention and so much difficulty
• Helaman 3:25 and so great was the prosperity of the church and so many the blessings
• 3 Nephi 5:6 there were so much wickedness and so many murders committed
• Ether 14:21 and so great and lasting had been the war and so long had been the scene of bloodshed and carnage

We note that two of these examples (Alma 62:35 and Ether 14:21) include instances of simple conjuncts of adjectives or nouns where, as we have seen, the so is not repeated.

If the extra so in “so exquisite and so bitter” is an early error in the text, one wonders how it could have been introduced. There are no nearby instances of the repeated so that could have reasonably prompted such an error (the nearest preceding instance, “so much light and so much knowledge”, is in Alma 9:19). And the following nonrepeating “so exquisite and sweet” in this verse could not have caused the repetition of the so. These considerations argue that the use of the repeated so in “so exquisite and so bitter” must be intended, despite its exceptionality. The critical text will therefore maintain the variability in Alma 36:21, with one instance of repeated so (“so exquisite and so bitter”) and one of nonrepeated so (“so exquisite and sweet”).

The King James Bible has only one example of the repeated so with adjectival conjuncts. In this case, two verbless predicates are conjoined:

• Revelation 16:18
  • and there was a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth so mighty an earthquake and so great

There are no examples in the King James text itself of the nonrepeated so. Interestingly, however, there is an example of nonrepeated so for conjoined adjectives in the dedication that the 1611 translators wrote to the king: “that … it may receive approbation and patronage from so learned and judicious a Prince as Your Highness is”.