Alma 46:27 Textual Variants

Here in the 1840 edition, the order of it shall was switched to shall it. Theoretically, the change could have been either a typo or the result of Joseph Smith’s editing for the 1840 edition. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the original word order to the RLDS text.

Evidence elsewhere in the text argues that the 1840 change was unintentional since there are other examples of “and even ” (eight of them), yet none of these have ever undergone a shift in their word order like here in Alma 46:27:

• Mosiah 2:14 and even I myself have labored with mine own hands
• Mosiah 22:1 and even they did cause that all the people should gather themselves together
• Mosiah 29:14 and even I myself have labored with all the power …
• Alma 7:2 and even I could not have come now at this time
• Alma 11:44 and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost
• Alma 32:1 yea and even they did preach the word in their streets
• Helaman 3:5 yea and even they did spread forth into all parts of the land
• Helaman 9:41 and even he hath brought unto our knowledge the true murderer of our chief judge

Nor are there any examples in the text of “and even ”. The critical text will therefore maintain the original word order in Alma 46:27 (“yea and even it shall be us”).