3 Nephi 12:26 Textual Variants

Matthew 5:26 (King James Bible) verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing

Here in the printer’s manuscript we have a single verily, whereas the 1830 edition has a double one, verily verily. The corresponding text in Matthew 5:26 has a single verily, like the printer’s manuscript. In the King James Bible, the double verily is found only in the Gospel of John. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), there are examples of only the single verily. And for each of these instances, when quoted in the Book of Mormon, both 𝓟 and the 1830 edition have the single verily (except for this case in 3 Nephi 12:26 for the 1830 edition):

book of mormon / king james bible common text

3 Nephi 12:18 / Matthew 5:18 for verily I say unto you

3 Nephi 12:26 / Matthew 5:26 verily I say unto thee

3 Nephi 13:2 / Matthew 6:2 verily I say unto you

3 Nephi 13:5 / Matthew 6:5 verily I say unto you

3 Nephi 13:16 / Matthew 6:16 verily I say unto you

And this same basic reading, with “I say unto thee” following a single verily, is what we have in Matthew 5:26 as well as in 𝓟 for 3 Nephi 12:26. What appears to have happened is that the 1830 compositor accidentally doubled the verily because he had also been setting verily verily in the text. Generally speaking, here in 3 Nephi 12–14, where the corresponding Matthew 5–7 text has no verily at all, the Book of Mormon text has the double verily. In fact, this includes one case of verily verily later on in this same verse 26: “verily verily I say unto you nay”. And prior to the first case of “verily (verily)” here in 3 Nephi 12:26, there are instances of both the single and the double verily :

• 3 Nephi 11:23 verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 11:27 for behold verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 11:29 for verily verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 11:31 behold verily verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 11:35 verily verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 11:39 verily verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 12:13 verily verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 12:14 verily verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 12:18 for verily I say unto you
• 3 Nephi 12:20 for verily I say unto you

Notice that the last four instances without any narrative connector (from 3 Nephi 11:35 through 3 Nephi 12:14) have the double verily, which may have led the 1830 compositor to accidentally set the same “verily verily I say unto thee” here in 3 Nephi 12:26 instead of the correct “verily I say unto thee” (the King James reading). Since all other King James instances of verily in the Sermon on the Mount are correctly transmitted as a single verily into the Book of Mormon text, the critical text will accept the reading in 𝓟 with the single verily for 3 Nephi 12:26.

There is one other instance of variation between 𝓟 and the 1830 edition regarding the single and the double verily. That case is found later on in this chapter:

• 3 Nephi 12:34
  • but [verily 1|verily verily ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] I say unto you swear not at all

In that instance, there is no verily in the corresponding King James passage, but internal evidence suggests that the correct reading is the double verily; for discussion, see under 3 Nephi 12:34.