Alma 37:2 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and I also command you that ye [shall 0A|shall >js NULL 1| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] keep a record of this people according as I have done upon the plates of Nephi and keep all these things sacred which I have kept

In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith eliminated the modal verb shall near the beginning of Alma 37:2, perhaps because the preceding verse is very similar but does not have any modal:

Thus the change in verse 2 makes the beginning of the chapter read more consistently. Nonetheless, shall is clearly possible and is found in this context elsewhere in the text:

The critical text will therefore restore the occurrence of shall here in Alma 37:2.

Summary: Restore in Alma 37:2 the original shall in “I also command you that ye shall keep a record of this people”, despite the fact that the preceding verse lacks the shall (“I command you that ye take the records”); either usage occurs elsewhere in the text.

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

References