3 Nephi 6:14 Textual Variants

Here the printer’s manuscript has “the commands of the Lord”, but the 1830 edition has “the commandments of the Lord”. As explained under Alma 30:7, there are three clear cases where Oliver Cowdery accidentally changed “the commandments of God” to “the commands of God” as he copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟 (and in one case he did not catch his error, in Alma 30:7):

• 1 Nephi 4:17
  • according to his [commandments 0BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST| commands > commandments 1|commmandments A]
• Alma 30:7
  • for it was strictly contrary to the [commandments 0|commands 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of God
• Helaman 7:4
• laying aside the [commands > commandments 1| commandments ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of God

On the other hand, there are no examples where the 1830 typesetter ever mixed up these two words. Therefore, it is very likely here in 3 Nephi 6:14 that Oliver Cowdery is the one responsible for the variation, replacing an original commandments with commands.

Elsewhere in the text, the use of commands in reference to God’s commandments appears to be restricted to Jacob, the brother of Nephi (Jacob 2:10, 2:16, 4:5, and 7:27). Of course, there are examples in the text of military commands (four of them); but in reference to God’s commands, the word commandment is what the text otherwise uses. For further discussion of this point, see under Jacob 2:10.