3 Nephi 12:42 Textual Variants

Matthew 5:42 (King James Bible) give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away

The 1920 LDS edition emended the second instance of the preposition to to from in 3 Nephi 12:42 so that it would agree with the King James Bible and the text would make better sense. Since bothn 𝓟 and the 1830 edition have the preposition to here, 𝓞 probably read the same. In other words, 𝓞 seems to have read to him twice in this verse. Nonetheless, the second to him could well be an error prompted by the preceding occurrence of the first to him.

There is one Greek New Testament manuscript that agrees with the earliest reading here in 3 Nephi 12:42. This Greek reading could equivalently be translated as “and to him that would borrow / turn thou not away”. The manuscript with this reading is the highly idiosyncratic Codex Bezae, dating from the fifth century CE (and represented by the symbol D in the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament apparatus). But one should not interpret this reading as supporting the text here in 3 Nephi 12:42. Instead, the reading in Codex Bezae may be due to the same error as here in 3 Nephi 12:42: namely, the preceding instance of the Greek equivalent of to in “give to him that asketh thee” led to the introduction of to in the following clause. Another possible source for the Greek textual variant depends on the parallel Latin text in the dual-language Codex Bezae; namely, the Latin noun form volenti can be translated as either ‘from one wishing’ (in the ablative) or ‘to one wishing’ (in the dative). In other words, one could propose that the Greek text in Codex Bezae was altered to agree with a dative interpretation of the Latin volenti. Also note the virtual identity after the word-initial consonant between the Greek to¯ thelonti ‘to the one wishing’ and the Latin velonti ‘to one wishing’ (both end in elonti). In other words, the Greek reading here in Codex Bezae may be an instance of contamination from the Latin.

There is one example elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text of a mix-up between the prepositions from and to, although in that instance the momentary change of from to to was in anticipation of a following to rather than prompted by a preceding to:

• Alma 21:18 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • and it came to pass that Ammon and Lamoni returned [to > from 1|from ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] the land of Middoni to the land of Ishmael

Thus there is some manuscript support for analyzing the second occurrence of the preposition to

in 3 Nephi 12:42 as an error for from.

David Calabro points out (personal communication) that one could make sense of the earliest reading here in 3 Nephi 12:42 by interpreting the verb give as taking a conjunctive prepositional phrase, followed by an independent imperative:

• 3 Nephi 12:42 (earliest text, with revised accidentals)
  • Give to him that asketh thee and to him that would borrow of thee. Turn thou not away.

Yet there are no other examples in any of the Book of Mormon quotations from the Bible that show this kind of clausal reinterpretation. Words may be added, deleted, or replaced, but without ever shifting a clausal boundary. This consistency elsewhere in the biblical quotations suggests that we have an error here in 3 Nephi 12:42, not a reanalysis of the syntax. The critical text will therefore accept the 1920 LDS emendation as the original reading (which agrees with the King James reading in Matthew 5:42 as well as with the virtually unanimous reading of the Greek New Testament manuscripts). What probably happened in the Book of Mormon text is that during the dictation of 3 Nephi 12:42, the original from was replaced by to because of the preceding “give to him that asketh thee”.