Alma 36:27 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
yea God hath delivered me from [prisons 01|prison ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and from bonds and from death

The 1830 typesetter accidentally changed the plural prisons to prison. Alma’s usage here is consistent with the conjoining of the same nouns (namely, the singular death and the plurals bonds and prisons) later on in the text:

Although the order of the conjuncts differs, this parallel passage retains the plural prisons. There is nothing wrong with the original plural prisons in Alma 36:27.

Summary: In accord with the reading of the two manuscripts, restore the plural prisons in Alma 36:27 (“God hath delivered me from prisons and from bonds and from death); this same plural usage is found in Alma 62:50 (“he had delivered them from death and from bonds and from prisons”).

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

References