3 Nephi 3:11 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
he was exceedingly astonished because of the boldness of Giddianhi [in 1PS| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] demanding the possession of the land of the Nephites

The printer’s manuscript has the connective preposition in before the present participle demanding. The 1830 edition lacks this preposition. The in was restored to the RLDS text in 1908, but the LDS text has maintained the 1830 reading. The text seems to read more naturally with the preposition. Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text, in phrases beginning with because of, a following presentparticiple phrase is typically introduced by the connective preposition in:

Note especially the two examples in 3 Nephi 3 (in verses 2 and 10) that support the occurrence of in here in verse 11. Most likely the original manuscript in 3 Nephi 3:11 had the preposition in and the 1830 typesetter accidentally omitted it. Here is another example where the 1830 typesetter omitted the preposition in:

For another case where a different typesetter (in this instance, the 1837 typesetter) omitted a connective in, see under 1 Nephi 8:37. Oliver Cowdery once inserted an extra in, but that was only a momentary error that resulted from him thinking the text read believe in rather than just believe:

There are no examples where Oliver ever added a connective in, even momentarily.

Nonetheless, there are a few cases where the present-participle clause lacks the in after the because-of phrase; for each of these, the in could be added, at least theoretically, although there might be some shift in what the participial clause is referring to:

So either reading is theoretically possible here in 3 Nephi 3:11. But since it seems very unlikely that Oliver Cowdery would have added the in on his own accord, the critical text will here accept the reading of 𝓟.

Summary: Restore in 3 Nephi 3:11 the connective preposition in, the reading of the printer’s manuscript: “because of the boldness of Giddianhi in demanding the possession of the land of the Nephites”.

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

References