Helaman 7:16 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
yea how could ye have given away to the enticing of him who [art >js is 1|art A|is BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] seeking to hurl away your souls down to everlasting misery and endless woe

In the original text, there are a few instances in relative clauses where the nonstandard use of the second person singular art appears to be intended. Here in Helaman 7:16 is one example: “of him who art seeking to hurl away your souls”. See the discussion under Alma 10:7 for the evidence that art was the original reading here in Helaman 7:16 and in three other passages. In this particular case, Joseph Smith made the grammatical emendation to is in his editing for the 1837 edition.

Summary: Restore in Helaman 7:16 the original art in the relative clause “who art seeking to hurl away your souls”.

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

References