Alma 41:2–3 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
behold it is requisite and just according to the power and resurrection of Christ that the soul of man should be restored to its body and that every part of the body should be restored to itself and it is [also 0| 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works

Here at the end of a line in 𝓞, there is an also that Oliver Cowdery accidentally omitted when he copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟. Oliver occasionally had difficulty reading the text near the gutters of 𝓞 since the folded sheets of the gathering were stitched together when he did his copywork. Eight lines later on this page of 𝓞, Oliver omitted in his copywork another word, to, that was at the end of a line; see the discussion under Alma 41:5.

The also nicely distinguishes between the twofold nature of God’s justice. Verse 2 describes the universal restoration of the soul to the physical body while verse 3 describes the individual judgment of each person according to their works.

Summary: In accord with the reading of the original manuscript, restore the word also near the beginning of Alma 41:3 (“and it is also requisite with the justice of God that …”).

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

References