Alma 63:8 Textual Variants

Oliver Cowdery, when copying to the printer’s manuscript, switched the order of never were to were never, which represents the more common word order in modern English. Elsewhere the text has examples of never before the finite verb as well as after it, although the first type is more prevalent in the Book of Mormon text. Here are the 13 examples where the subject is the pronoun they (including Alma 63:8):

never precedes the finite verb

• Alma 24:18 that they never would use weapons again
• Alma 27:28 and they never could be prevailed upon to take up arms
• Alma 27:28 and they never did look upon death with any degree of terror
• Alma 44:19 that they never would come to war again
• Alma 53:11 that they never would shed blood more
• Alma 53:17 that they never would give up their liberty
• Alma 53:19 as they never had hitherto been a disadvantage to the Nephites
• Alma 56:47 now they never had fought
• Alma 63:8 they never were heard of more
• Helaman 15:15 that they never would again have dwindled in unbelief never

follows the finite verb

• 1 Nephi 15:24 they would never perish
• 2 Nephi 1:7 they shall never be brought down into captivity
• Alma 24:30 as though they had never known these things

In one of these cases (Alma 44:19), the 1874 RLDS edition shifted the never to after the finite verb (see the discussion under that passage). Since either word order is possible, the critical text will restore the original order here in Alma 63:8, “they never were heard of more”.