Helaman 3:31 Textual Variants

Here Oliver Cowdery initially wrote rejoicings (spelled as rejoiceings) in the printer’s manuscript; then he immediately erased the plural s, which means that the original manuscript probably had the singular rejoicing (spelled as rejoiceing). However, the occurrence of the plural were suggests that such a singular rejoicing in 𝓞 could have been an error for rejoicings, that the plural s had been accidentally dropped while taking down Joseph Smith’s dictation. And we have one instance in the manuscripts where Oliver initially wrote rejoicing instead of the correct rejoicings:

• Alma 30:22
  • why do ye teach this people that there shall be no Christ to interrupt their [rejoiceing > rejoiceings 1|rejoicings ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]

As discussed under that passage, either the singular or the plural is theoretically possible.

Another possibility here in Helaman 3:31 is that the verb in the earliest extant reading, were, is an error for was. The grammatical change of were to was was first made in the 1840 edition (perhaps by Joseph Smith in his editing for that edition) and then later in the second printing for the 1852 LDS edition (apparently by reference to the 1840 edition). Another possible emendation would have been to change rejoicing to the plural, giving “there were continual rejoicings”, much like the grammatically emended reading that Joseph, in his editing for the 1837 edition, introduced into the following passage:

• Mosiah 23:24
  • and great [was >js were 1|was A|were BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] their rejoicings

Despite these suggestions for removing this case of subject-verb disagreement in Helaman 3:31, there is evidence in the original text for expressions of the form “there were ”, although all of these examples have been edited to “there was ” at some time in the history of the text:

• Helaman 16:12 (by Joseph Smith in his editing for the 1837 edition)
  • and there [were >js was 1|were A|was BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] but little alteration in the affairs of the people
• 3 Nephi 1:23 (in the third printing of the 1905 LDS edition, in 1907)
  • Nephi went forth among the people and also many others baptizing unto repentance in the which there [were 1ABCDEFGHIJKLNPS|were > was M|was OQRT] a great remission of sins
• 3 Nephi 4:4 (by Joseph Smith in his editing for the 1837 edition)
  • therefore there [were >js was 1|were A|was BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] no chance for the robbers to plunder and to obtain food
• 3 Nephi 11:3 (in the 1849 LDS edition and in the 1858 Wright edition)
  • it did pierce them that did hear to the center insomuch that there [were 1ABCD|was EFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake
• 4 Nephi 1:35 (by Joseph Smith in his editing for the 1837 edition)
  • yea in the two hundred and thirty and first year there [were >js was 1|were A|was BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] a great division among the people

These instances of “there were ” argue that “there were continual rejoicing” is actually possible. For this reason, the critical text will accept the corrected reading in 𝓟 for Helaman 3:31 (the earliest extant reading) as the original reading.