3 Nephi 1:22 Textual Variants

Here in 3 Nephi 1:22, the printer’s manuscript has “those lyings and deceivings”, but the 1830 edition has “these lyings and deceivings”. The determiner in 𝓟, those, was restored to the RLDS text in the 1908 RLDS edition. The LDS text has maintained the 1830 determiner, these.

There are quite a few examples in the history of the text where these and those have been mixed up. There is clear evidence that Oliver Cowdery sometimes wrote those instead of the correct these, with some as momentary errors and others as permanent errors:

• Alma 25:1 (change to those when copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟)
  • and behold now it came to pass that [these 0|those 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] Lamanites were more angry
• Alma 57:20 (change to those when copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟)
  • behold [these 0|those 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] two thousand and sixty were firm and undaunted
• Helaman 5:49 (initial change in 𝓟 to those virtually immediately corrected)
  • and there were about three hundred souls which saw and heard [those > these 1|these ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] things
• Helaman 6:25 (initial change in 𝓟 to those virtually immediately corrected)
  • now behold it is [those > these 1|these ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] secret oaths and covenants which Alma commanded his son should not go forth unto the world

On the other hand, there is also clear evidence that the 1830 compositor sometimes set these

instead of those:

• Mosiah 28:1
  • that they might with [those 1PS|these ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] whom they had selected go up to the land of Nephi
• Alma 39:19
  • for the Lord to send his angel to declare [those 01|these ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] glad tidings unto us
• Alma 50:2 (these also initially written in 𝓟 by Oliver Cowdery, but virtually immediately corrected to those)
• and upon the top of [those 0|these > those 1|these ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] ridges of earth he caused that …
• Alma 60:16
  • yea were it not for [those 01PS|these ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] kingmen …

Thus the evidence from errors does not strongly favor one reading over the other here in 3 Nephi 1:22.

In the printer’s manuscript for 3 Nephi 1:22, the word those (in “those lyings and deceivings”) is the very first word on the manuscript page (at the beginning of line 1 on page 365). The first few words of the page is a common place for an error to occur since the scribe is forced to keep the text in mind as he switches to a new page. Moreover, the immediately preceding sentence in this passage has “those signs and wonders”, which could have prompted Oliver Cowdery to write those in place of these, giving “those lyings and deceivings”. The most reasonable solution here is to follow the 1830 reading since the reading in 𝓟 can be readily explained as a scribal error. Obviously, the evidence in favor of the 1830 reading is not overwhelming.

There are two other examples of a mix-up between these and those for this part of the text (where both 𝓟 and the 1830 edition are firsthand copies of 𝓞):

• 3 Nephi 10:17
  • and [these 1BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|those A] things which testifies of us are they not written upon the plates of brass
• 3 Nephi 19:28
  • Father I thank thee that thou hast purified [these 01PS|those ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] which I have chosen because of their faith

The variation is just the opposite here in these two examples, with these in 𝓟 and those in the 1830 edition. Note that in the second example the word these is extant in 𝓞, which means that in that case we can be sure that it was the 1830 compositor who made the change (from these to those). For analysis and discussion, see under these two passages.