3 Nephi 18:8 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and it came to pass that when he [had 1ABCDGHKPS| EFIJLMNOQRT] said these words he commanded his disciples that they should take of the wine of the cup and drink of it

The 1849 LDS edition removed the perfective auxiliary had here in 3 Nephi 18:8. This change appears to be accidental since in narratives the text otherwise has examples of only “when X had said” (36 times). There are no examples in Book of Mormon narratives of “when X said”. There are, it should be pointed out, two examples without the had, but these do not occur in narratives:

In these two cases, the use of the said without the perfect had is appropriate. The critical text will restore the original “when he had said these words” here in 3 Nephi 18:8, thus making the usage consistent in all narrative passages.

Summary: Restore the original text in 3 Nephi 18:8 (“when he had said these words”) since Book of Mormon narratives consistently use the past-perfect auxiliary had with said in when- clauses.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 5

References