Alma 49:28 Textual Variants

The original manuscript has the phrase “his miraculous power”, but Oliver Cowdery misspelled the word as marackelous. It was probably the initial ma that then led him to misread the word as matchless when he copied this passage into the printer’s manuscript.

In the original text there are examples of matchless, marvelous, and miraculous occurring with power:

• “matchless power” 1 Nephi 17:42, Mosiah 2:11, Mosiah 4:6,Alma 9:11
• “matchless and marvelous power” Mosiah 1:13
• “miraculous power” Alma 9 preface, Alma 10:5, Alma 49:28,Alma 57:26
• “marvelous power” Alma 10:5, Alma 57:26 “miraculous and matchless power” Helaman 4:25

The original case of “miraculous power” in Alma 10:5 was accidentally changed to “marvelous power” because of the preceding occurrence of this alternative form earlier in the verse (see the discussion under that passage). For each case of “ power”, the critical text will accept the adjective that occurs in the earliest extant reading.