3 Nephi 7:6 Textual Variants

The plural combinations is theoretically possible here. The earliest textual sources, 𝓟 and the 1830 edition, read in the singular. Here the 1902 LDS edition made the change to the plural, probably unintentionally. Elsewhere the text has 21 instances of the plural but only 6 of the singular. The two preceding instances in the text of combination(s) are in the plural (in 3 Nephi 4:29 and 3 Nephi 5:6) and may have prompted the 1902 change here in 3 Nephi 7:6 to the plural. The 1902 edition was never used as a copytext, so subsequent LDS editions have maintained the singular here in 3 Nephi 7:6. The singular is definitely correct here, given the grammatically singular reading a few verses later:

• 3 Nephi 7:9
  • now this secret combination which had brought so great iniquity upon the people did gather themselves together and did place at their head a man whom they did call Jacob

The critical text will therefore maintain the singular combination in verse 6.