3 Nephi 12:23 Textual Variants

Matthew 5:23 (King James Bible) therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee …

We note here that the first line in the Book of Mormon text avoids any reference to bringing a gift to the altar (since the Mosaic law is no longer in force, as explained by Jesus in 3 Nephi 15:2–8); thus “if thou bring thy gift to the altar” is replaced with “if ye shall come unto me or shall desire to come unto me”. But also note, in particular, the shift from the second person singular thou to the second person plural ye. The remainder of the verse is basically identical with the King James reading, with the result that in the Book of Mormon text the subject pronoun ye ends up taking the verb form rememberest rather than the expected remember. For further discussion of this anomaly, see under 2 Nephi 7:11. For a case of “ye ... repenteth” in the original text, see under Mosiah 4:22. The critical text will continue with this instance of “ye … rememberest” here in 3 Nephi 12:23 since it is the reading of the earliest text. In fact, the verse here has never been grammatically emended to, for instance, “if thou shalt come unto me or shalt desire to come unto me”.