Helaman 8:16 Textual Variants

Here the 1837 edition changed the singular day (“from his day”) to the plural days (“from his days”). The following plural days in “even to the days of Abraham” may have led to this 1837 change, whether intended or not (the change of day to days was not marked by Joseph Smith in 𝓟). There is definitely internal evidence to support the plural days in phrases of the form “the day(s) of X”, where X is a personal name; for discussion of the phrase “since the day(s) of Nephi”, see under Alma 50:23. But here in Helaman 8:16, there is no postmodification by an of-phrase; instead, the word day(s) is premodified by the determiner his. Elsewhere, the text has quite a few examples of his days (17 of them), but there are also three examples of his day; the first two clearly refer to Christ, and it appears that the third one does too:

• 2 Nephi 25:13
  • wherefore my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him for I have seen his day and my heart doth magnify his holy name
• Helaman 8:22
  • yea they have testified of the coming of Christ and have looked forward and have rejoiced in his day which is to come
• Ether 9:22
  • yea and he even saw the Sun of Righteousness and did rejoice and glory in his day

So one could claim that the text uses only his day when referring to the day of Christ.

However, when we consider the parallel case of my day(s), we find two instances of my day (and for neither of these does the my refer to the Lord):

• Alma 13:25
  • and now we only wait to hear the joyful news declared unto us by the mouth of angels of his coming for the time cometh—we know not how soon— would to God that it might be in my day but let it be sooner or later / in it I will rejoice
• 3 Nephi 5:16
  • therefore I do make my record from the accounts which hath been given by those which were before me until the commencement of my day

Elsewhere there are 11 occurrences of my days. So probably what we have is a predominance of his days and my days, but the singular day is still possible for both his day and my day. Similarly, his days and my days dominate in the King James Bible, but there are also a few instances of his day and my day, as in Job 3:1 (“after this opened Job his mouth and cursed his day”) and in John 8:56 (“your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day”), the latter referring once more to Christ. The critical text will restore the singular his day here in Helaman 8:16.

The possibility remains, of course, that his day here in Helaman 8:16 is an error for his days. There are quite a few examples in the manuscripts where the scribes accidentally wrote day instead of the correct days (and sometimes without correcting the error in the manuscript):

• 1 Nephi 15:13 (initial error by Oliver Cowdery in 𝓟)
  • in the latter [days 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|day > days 1] when our seed shall have dwindled in unbelief
• Jacob 1:7 (initial error by Oliver Cowdery in 𝓟)
  • as in the provocation in the [day > days 1|days ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness
• Mosiah 18:7 (Oliver Cowdery’s uncorrected error in 𝓟)
  • after many [day 1|days ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] there were a goodly number gathered together to the place of Mormon
• Alma 13:18 (initial error by scribe 2 of 𝓟)
  • and Melchizedek did establish peace in the land in his [day > days 1|days ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]
• Alma 36:16 (Oliver Cowdery’s uncorrected error in 𝓞)
  • for three [day 0|days 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and for three nights was I racked even with the pains of a damned soul
• Helaman 13:2 (Oliver Cowdery’s uncorrected error in 𝓟)
  • he did preach [many day 1|many-day A|many days BCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST| manv days D] repentance unto the people
• 3 Nephi 2:5 (initial error by Oliver Cowdery in 𝓟)
  • and also an hundred years had passed away since the [day > days 1|days ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of Mosiah

Note that the example in Alma 13:18 deals with the phrase “in his days” while the one in 3 Nephi 2:5 deals with “since the days of Mosiah”. Thus the case of “in his day” here in Helaman 8:16 could be an error.