Alma 47:1 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
for behold he had took those which were with him and went up [into 1APS|in BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] the land of Nephi among the Lamanites

Here the 1837 edition accidentally replaced the preposition into with in. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the original into, as will the critical text. As discussed under Mosiah 23:26, the Book of Mormon text generally prefers the preposition into over in when referring to motion, especially across geographical boundaries. In expressions of the form “to go in(to) a land”, we never get in in the earliest text, only into (17 times, including here in Alma 47:1).

For another example of the change from into to in (and once more in the 1837 edition), see the nearby discussion under Alma 47:29.

Summary: Restore the preposition into in Alma 47:1: “and went up into the land of Nephi”; usage elsewhere in the text consistently supports into over in for the expression “to go in(to) a land”.

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

References