Helaman 6:8 Textual Variants

Here in the printer’s manuscript, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote “among the Lamanites or the Nephites”; then he supralinearly inserted the repeated among (with no change in the level of ink flow). His correction undoubtedly reflects the reading of the original manuscript, especially since in English we expect the preposition to not be repeated. His error was probably prompted by the lack of repetition in the parallel sentence in the preceding verse:

• Helaman 6:7
  • insomuch that the Nephites did go into whatsoever part of the land they would whether among the Nephites or the Lamanites

The repeated among is characteristic of the Book of Mormon text and occurs with other instances of conjuncts conjoined by or:

• Alma 4:19
  • that he himself might go forth among his people or among the people of Nephi
• Alma 17:22
  • if it were his desires to dwell in the land among the Lamanites or among his people
• Alma 19:14
  • which had been the cause of so much mourning among the Nephites or among all the people of God

But there are other cases without the repeated among:

• Mosiah 1:10
  • I would that ye should make a proclamation throughout all this land among all this people or the people of Zarahemla and the people of Mosiah which dwell in this land
• Alma 54:3
  • and there was not a woman nor a child among all the prisoners of Moroni or the prisoners which Moroni had taken

(Note that all five of these other cases involve the corrective or, not the regular disjunctive or used twice in Helaman 6:7–8.)

So either reading, with or without the among, is theoretically possible. In each case, we follow the earliest reading; thus the repeated among will be maintained in Helaman 6:8. (We can also find evidence for the repeated among when the conjunction is and rather than or; see under Alma 51:7 for three examples.)