Alma 43:25 Textual Variants

The original manuscript is fragmented here where the printer’s manuscript reads remainder part. Most of this noun phrase is found on one fairly large fragment, and the most plausible word seems to be remainder followed by the descender of the p for the following word, part. Yet it is possible that the original manuscript actually reads remainding part. The d is definitely there, although only partially extant. It is clear that 𝓞 does not read remaining part. The alternative reading remainding part is theoretically possible because in Oliver Cowdery’s hand the final e in remainder could be an undotted i with a loop and the r could be an n; and because of the fragmented nature of the extant leaf, the descender of the p could actually be the descender of a g. Nonetheless, the more likely possibility is that the actual word is remainder, especially since a scribal error like remainding, it seems to me, would be quite implausible.

When we look at other places in the text where we have part, we find five cases where the text first refers to a part of something (either “a part” or “the more part”), then later refers to the remainder of that something but without repeating the word part:

• Alma 43:31–32
  • therefore he divided his army and brought a part over into the valley and concealed them on the east and on the south of the hill Riplah and the remainder he concealed in the west valley on the west of the river Sidon and so down into the borders of the land Manti
• Alma 52:26
  • and thus Moroni had obtained a possession of the city Mulek with a part of his army while he marched with the remainder to meet the Lamanites
• Alma 56:33
  • Antipus did march forth with a part of his army leaving the remainder to maintain the city
• Alma 56:57
  • therefore we sent them to the land of Zarahemla and a part of those men which were not slain of Antipus with them and the remainder I took and joined them to my stripling Ammonites
• Helaman 15:6
  • the more part of them are doing this and they are striving with unwearied diligence that they may bring the remainder of their brethren to the knowledge of the truth

These five examples show that the expected form in Alma 43:25 is simply the remainder, not the remainder part. Nonetheless, it does appear that the word part was in the original manuscript. Only part of the p is extant (presuming the word is not remainding ), but spacing between extant fragments indicates that part was most probably there. And, of course, the phrase remainder part is the reading in 𝓟. Nonetheless, if remainder part is an error, perhaps the best emendation would be to drop the word part rather than change remainder to remaining (the emendation adopted by the editors for the 1920 LDS edition).

Except for the case here in Alma 43:25, the noun remainder is always a head noun (57 times) and never premodifies another noun. It turns out that there are two occurrences of remaining, but these act as a postmodifying past participle (not as a premodifying adjectival participle):

• Alma 60:27 yea if there be even a spark of freedom remaining
• Helaman 16:10 and the more part of the people remaining in their pride

Of particular importance here is the fact that remainder part can be found in textual sources from Early Modern English and from the 1830s. We have the following example from an early 17th-century translation of Seneca’s epistles (found on Literature Online ); the accidentals are here regularized:

• Thomas Lodge (1614)
  • how worthy a thing it is to consummate a man’s life before death than to expect security in the remainder part of his time placed in the possession of a blessed life which is not made more blessed if longer

And from , we have the following examples found in pension applications made during the 1830s from Revolutionary War veterans and sworn before justices of the peace in Montgomery county, New York state (original spellings and capitalization are here retained, but punctuation is ignored):

• Richard Loucks (2 August 1834)
  • a true and faithful soldier for and during the remainder part of the Revolutionary War to the full and Conclusion thereof
• George Saltsman (16 May 1836)
  • and that Claimant has been a faithful Soldier from the time he was enrolled and for and during the remainder Part of the said War to the final Conclusion thereof
• Conrad Kitts (16 May 1836)
  • and that he hath rendered good and faithful services to the United States for and during the remainder part of the aforesaid Revolutionary War to final conclusion thereof

The phrase the remainder part appears to be a set expression since the same general phraseology is repeated in these applications, with only minor variation: “for and during the remainder part of the Revolutionary War to the final conclusion thereof ”. Quite clearly, the phrase the remainder part is possible in Alma 43:25; the critical text will restore this unique instance of that phrase in the original text.