Alma 37:42 Textual Variants

The original manuscript has the singular transgression, which Oliver Cowdery accidentally copied into the printer’s manuscript as the plural transgressions. Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text, every occurrence of “because of transgression(s)” is in the singular, never the plural:

• 2 Nephi 2:21 they were lost because of the transgression of their parents
• Alma 3:6 which was a curse upon them because of their transgression
• Alma 22:12 because of transgression man had fallen
• Alma 28:13 how great the unequality of man is because of sin and transgression
• Alma 30:25 because of the transgression of a parent
• Helaman 4:26 yea thus had they become weak because of their transgression

In one example, Alma 3:6, scribe 2 of 𝓟 initially wrote transgressions, but then he immediately erased the plural s (thus showing once more the tendency in this context to write the plural transgressions instead of the correct singular).