Helaman 2:8 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
the servant of Helaman [sayeth 1|saith ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQS|said RT] unto Kishcumen …

In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith replaced most instances of the historical presenttense saith with the past-tense said. In a few cases, he failed to make the change. Typically, 20thcentury editions have made the change to said, with the 1920 LDS edition being the most prominent in implementing this emendation:

In the case of 3 Nephi 27:2, Joseph Smith marked the change from saith to said in 𝓟, but it was never implemented in the 1837 edition.

There are a few cases where the historical present tense has never been changed to the past tense. See, for instance, the discussion under 1 Nephi 17:53, 2 Nephi 6:11, and Jacob 5:8. Of course, the critical text will either restore or maintain, as the case may be, all the original instances of the historical present tense. For a brief discussion, see under 1 Nephi 2:1. For a complete list of where this editing has been implemented (as well as where it has never been implemented), see under historical present in volume 3.

Summary: Restore the original instance of the historical present-tense saith in Helaman 2:8 and elsewhere in the text (in each case according to the reading of the earliest textual sources).

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 5

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