Mormon 5:23 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
know ye not that ye are in the [hand > hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of God

Here scribe 2 of 𝓟 initially wrote “in the hand of God”, but virtually immediately he corrected the singular hand to hands. The 1830 edition reads hands, so undoubtedly 𝓞 did too. Elsewhere the text consistently has the plural hands for the phrase “in the hand(s) of God” (eight times), never the singular hand. For two other instances where scribe 2 of 𝓟 initially wrote hands as hand, see under Mosiah 27:4 and Mormon 6:15. The critical text will maintain the plural instance here in Mormon 5:23.

Summary: Maintain in Mormon 5:23 the plural hands in the phrase “in the hands of God”; elsewhere the text has only the plural hands for the phrase “in the hand(s) of God”.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 6

References