Matthew 5:13 (King James Bible)
but if the salt have lost his savor wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men
For this passage all the extant textual sources for the Book of Mormon text read “its savor”, which is what we expect in modern English. Since both 𝓟 and the 1830 edition here read its, it is likely (although not overwhelmingly so) that 𝓞 also read its. Interestingly, this same passage from the Sermon on the Mount is cited later in 3 Nephi, and there the original text actually read “his savor”:
In that instance, it is clear that 𝓞 read “his savor”. Oliver Cowdery initially wrote “its savor” in 𝓟, which he corrected virtually immediately to “his savor” (there is no change in the level of ink flow for the supralinearly inserted his). Here the 1830 edition also reads “his savor”. This means that even though Oliver had a tendency to write the expected “its savor”, he made sure in this later case that he copied “his savor” correctly. The 1830 typesetter also set “his savor”. So if in 3 Nephi 12:13 𝓞 had read “his savor”, it seems unlikely that both Oliver and the 1830 typesetter would have changed his to its; both avoided doing so later in 3 Nephi 16:15. (However, in his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith emended “his savor” to the expected “its savor” in that passage.) Thus we can deduce that 𝓞 likely read “its savor” for the earlier instance. If its is an error in 3 Nephi 12:13, it was probably made when the text was originally dictated. Of course, that is a distinct possibility since in 3 Nephi 16:15 Oliver initially wrote its instead of his in 𝓟. Ultimately, the critical text will follow the earliest reading here in 3 Nephi 12:13 (namely, “its savor”), even though this could be an error for the unexpected “his savor”.
In earlier English, his stood for both the masculine and the neuter possessive pronoun. The neuter form its is an analogical one and is not original in English. So in Matthew 5:13, the his actually means ‘its’. For discussion of this particular usage here in Matthew 5:13 and elsewhere in Early Modern English, see pages 150–151 of Charles Barber, Early Modern English (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997).
The more general question is whether the Book of Mormon version of the Sermon on the Mount allows for lexical variation. In comparing invariant Book of Mormon readings against the King James text, we find a number of examples where the difference is in the choice of a function word:
| 3 Nephi 12 / Matthew 5 | book of mormon text | king james text |
| verse 14 | a city that is set on a hill | a city that is set on an hill |
| verse 15 | and it giveth light to all | and it giveth light unto all |
| verse 18 | one jot nor one tittle | one jot or one tittle |
| verse 22 | and whosoever shall say | but whosoever shall say |
| verse 25 | while thou art in the way | whiles thou art in the way |
| verse 26 | until thou hast paid | till thou hast paid |
| verse 32 | and whoso shall marry her | and whosoever shall marry her |
| verse 32 | who is divorced | that is divorced |
| 3 Nephi 13 / Matthew 6 | ||
| verse 2 | before you | before thee |
| verse 17 | anoint thy head | anoint thine head |
| 3 Nephi 14 / Matthew 7 | ||
| verse 24 | whoso heareth these sayings | whosoever heareth these sayings |
In some of these cases, the Book of Mormon reading is the expected one for modern English. Although all of these Book of Mormon readings could be emended to their corresponding King James readings, the critical text will follow the earliest Book of Mormon sources in each of these cases since there is nothing wrong with the Book of Mormon reading. Therefore, since “its savor” will work here in 3 Nephi 12:13, the critical text will accept it. On the other hand, for 3 Nephi 16:15 the critical text will restore the original “his savor”, despite its disagreement with the earliest reading here in 3 Nephi 12:13.
Summary: Maintain in 3 Nephi 12:13 the modern reading “its savor”, the reading of the earliest textual sources; in 3 Nephi 16:15, on the other hand, the earliest reading is “his savor”, which agrees with the King James text for Matthew 5:13; the critical text will generally maintain an invariant Book of Mormon reading rather than the corresponding King James reading unless there is some evidence that the Book of Mormon reading is textually unacceptable; it is possible, of course, that the original text in 3 Nephi 12:13 read “his savor”, like the Matthew passage, but that the scribe in 𝓞 (presumably Oliver Cowdery) accidentally wrote the expected “its savor”.