3 Nephi 1:3 Textual Variants

Through all of 3 Nephi, both the 1830 edition and the printer’s manuscript are firsthand copies of the original manuscript (which is no longer extant in 3 Nephi except for a number of small fragments). Here in 3 Nephi 1:3, 𝓟 has the singular record, but the 1830 edition has the plural records. In the following phrase beginning with yea, both sources have the singular record (“yea the record of this people”), which suggests that the preceding singular reading of 𝓟 is the correct reading. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the singular to the RLDS text by reference to 𝓟.

As explained under Omni 1:9, there are references in the text to both “keeping a record” and “keeping records”, with the plural dominating. In fact, in the previous verse we have an example of the plural records with the verb keep:

• 3 Nephi 1:2
  • giving charge unto his son Nephi which was his eldest son concerning the plates of brass and all the records which had been kept

Nonetheless, when the text specifically refers to a person X by name and his keeping the record(s) in place of another person Y, we get only the singular record:

• 4 Nephi 1:19–20 (Amos, the son of Nephi)
  •   and it came to pass that Nephi
      he that kept this last record
      —and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi—died
    → and his son Amos kept it in his stead
      and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi also
      and he kept it eighty and four years
• 4 Nephi 1:21 (Amos, the son of Amos)
  •   and it came to pass that Amos died also
      —and it was an hundred and ninety and four years from the coming of Christ—
    → and his son Amos kept the record in his stead
      and he also kept it upon the plates of Nephi
      and it was also written in the book of Nephi which is this book
• 4 Nephi 1:47 (Ammaron, the brother of Amos)
  •   and it came to pass that after three hundred and five years had passed away
      —and the people did still remain in wickedness—
      and Amos died
    → and his brother Ammaron did keep the record in his stead

Thus we always get an expression of the form “X keeps the record in Y’s stead” (with each instance above indicated by an arrow). In fact, in all these examples (including the one in 3 Nephi 1:3), the name of the record keeper X is modified by a noun phrase referring to his relationship to Y, the preceding record keeper (as either “his son” or “his brother”). Thus the close parallelism between these four instances strongly supports the singular record.

One possibility here in 3 Nephi 1:3 is that 𝓞 read record and the 1830 typesetter made the change to the plural. There is, however, only one example (in Omni 1:9) where the typesetter made such an error; yet in that case, 𝓟 initially read in the plural, and although Oliver Cowdery erased the plural s, he did so insufficiently, with the result that the typesetter read the word as the plural records. Oliver, on the other hand, is much more prone to mix up record and records, although not permanently:

• Omni 1:9 (initial error in 𝓟 immediately corrected by erasure)
  • and after this manner we keep the [records >% record 1|records ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]
• Mosiah 1:6 (initial error in 𝓟 virtually immediately corrected)
  • and behold also the plates of Nephi which contain the [record > records 1|records ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and the sayings of our fathers
• Alma 18:36 (initial error in 𝓟 virtually immediately corrected)
  • and rehearsed and laid before him the [record > records 1|records ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and the holy scriptures of the people
• Alma 45:2 (obvious error in 𝓞 corrected when copying into 𝓟)
  • concerning [those /theese 0|these 1|those ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] [Reckord 0|reckords 1|records ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] which have been kept
• Helaman preface (initial error in 𝓟 immediately corrected by erasure)
  • according to the [Reckord 0|Records >% Record 1| record ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of Helaman and his sons
• Helaman 3:15 (obvious errors in 𝓞 virtually immediately corrected)
  • there are many [Book > Books 0|Books 1|books ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and many [Reckord > Reckords 0|records 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of every kind

So ultimately neither Oliver Cowdery nor the 1830 typesetter was overly prone to permanently reverse the number for record(s). In fact, here in 3 Nephi 1:3 there is always the possibility that 𝓞 itself read in the plural, but incorrectly. Since the scribal evidence is not particularly strong here, the best solution is to go with the reading that works best, namely, the singular record (the reading in 𝓟): “and his son Nephi did keep the record in his stead”.