Alma 50:6 Textual Variants

Later editions of the Book of Mormon (in some instances as early as the 1849 LDS edition) have replaced the two-word spelling strong hold with the single-word stronghold so that the modern editions systematically have stronghold wherever possible. However, usage within the text itself strongly argues that the two-word spelling is the correct spelling and should be restored in all cases. In most contexts, it seems to make little difference, but in several we can clearly see that the word strong is an adjective modifying the independent noun hold rather than forming the compound noun stronghold:

• Alma 53:5
  • and this city became an exceeding strong hold ever after
• Alma 53:6
  • Moroni ... had obtained possession of the city Mulek which was one of the strongest holds of the Lamanites in the land of the Nephites
• Alma 55:33
  • for behold the Lamanites had by their labors fortified the city Morionton until it had become an exceeding strong hold
• Helaman 1:22
  • he had obtained the possession of the strongest hold in all the land
• 3 Nephi 1:27
  • for so strong were their holds and their secret places that the people could not overpower them

For the two cases of “an exceeding strong hold”, strong hold is now spelled stronghold in the standard LDS and RLDS texts, as with 15 other instances of strong hold(s). Yet it seems strange to have the adjective exceeding modifying the compound stronghold when it really is modifying only the adjective part, strong. By separating the adjectival strong from the noun hold, we correctly represent the fact that exceeding modifies strong alone in those two instances. Interestingly, since the editors for the 1981 LDS edition otherwise made sure that every adverbial exceeding modifying an adjective read as exceedingly, these two occurrences of “an exceeding strong hold” should be edited in the standard LDS text to “an exceedingly strong hold”. The critical text will, of course, retain the original uses of adverbial exceeding, thus “an exceeding strong hold” in Alma 53:5 and Alma 55:33. For discussion of this issue regarding exceeding(ly), see under 1 Nephi 2:16 as well as more generally under exceeding in volume 3.

The King James Bible consistently uses the two-word spelling, strong hold, 8 times in the singular and 19 times in the plural. In particular, one of its passages is quoted in the Book of Mormon (although edited to strongholds in the current LDS and RLDS editions):

• 3 Nephi 21:15 (Micah 5:11)
  • and I will cut off the cities of thy land and throw down all thy strong holds

Also note the occurrence in the King James text of “the most strong holds” (equivalent to “the strongest holds”):

• Daniel 11:39
  • thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god