Alma 44:8 Textual Variants

Here the 1920 LDS edition reversed the polarity of the conjunction by changing the and to but. There are three other instances in the 1920 edition where an original but was emended to and. Two are nearby, in Alma 42:30 and Alma 43:20, and the third is later on in the text, in Ether 6:23. For analysis, see the discussion under each of these passages. For a general list of variants involving but and and, see the discussion regarding straight versus strait under 1 Nephi 8:20. Since over half of those variants are the result of Oliver Cowdery’s scribal errors, it is possible that the and here in Alma 44:8 is an error for but. The ampersand is extant in 𝓞, so the error (if it is one) would have occurred as Joseph Smith dictated the passage to Oliver.

The Book of Mormon text has, of course, many instances of but. At the same time, it has many examples of connective and where polarity is reversed, cases where modern English readers expect but. Here are a few examples:

• Jacob 5:65
  • and as they begin to grow ye shall clear away the branches which bring forth bitter fruit according to the strength of the good and the size thereof and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once
• Mosiah 2:8
  • and it came to pass that he began to speak to his people from the tower and they could not all hear his words because of the greatness of the multitude
• Alma 22:6
  • if ye will repent / ye shall be saved and if ye will not repent / ye shall be cast off at the last day
• Alma 54:3
  • now the Lamanites had taken many women and children and there was not a woman nor a child among all the prisoners of Moroni or the prisoners which Moroni had taken
• Helaman 6:19
  • and it was they which did murder the chief judge Cezoram and his son while in the judgment seat and behold they were not found
• 3 Nephi 11:8
  • and the eyes of the whole multitude was turned upon him and they durst not open their mouths / even one to another
• Mormon 5:7
  • and they whose flight were swifter than the Lamanites did escape and they whose flight did not exceed the Lamanites were swept down and destroyed
• Ether 6:26
  • and it came to pass that they chose all the brothers of Pagag and they would not
• Moroni 1:2–3
  • and because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ and I Moroni will not deny the Christ wherefore I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life

Such usage is prevalent in the biblical text, as in these examples from the King James Bible:

• Genesis 2:25
  • and they were both naked / the man and the wife and were not ashamed
• Matthew 1:19
  • then Joseph her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily

In both the Hebrew and Greek originals, the conjunction and can reverse polarity. For the Hebrew usage, see the discussion under “disjunctive waw” (pages 650–652) in Bruce K. Waltke and Michael O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1990), where the authors state: “If the disjunctive waw is used in a situation with continuity of setting, the clause it introduces may contrast with the preceding” (page 651). They give as an example the following case that the King James Bible translated as but (the Hebrew literally reads with a waw, the conjunctive clitic generally used to mean ‘and’):

• Genesis 2:16–17
  • and the LORD God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it

For the Greek usage, see the discussion under jaA (page 227) in Friedrich Blass and Albert Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, translated and revised by Robert W. Funk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961). There the authors note: “KaA can be used even where there is actual contrast”; they cite the following example from the Sermon on the Mount where the conjunction yet was used by the King James translators (the Greek literally reads kai, the word generally used to mean ‘and’):

• Matthew 6:26
  • behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them

The biblical style, like the Book of Mormon style, frequently uses the general and to connect independent clauses, especially in narrative. And as in the original Hebrew and Greek (as well as frequently in the literally translated King James Bible), the conjunction and in the Book of Mormon sometimes reverses polarity. The critical text will therefore restore the original instance of and in Alma 44:8 but with the understanding that it means ‘but’.