Mormon 8:38–39 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies [ 1|, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQS|— RT] because of the praise of the world [ 1|? AEFIJLMNOPQRST|. BCDGHK] why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life …

One wonders with respect to the larger context how to parse the because-phrase (“because of the praise of the world”). It doesn’t seem to belong at the end of the previous question per se, nor does it seem to belong to the following question. It seems to be stranded, and perhaps for that reason the 1920 LDS edition replaced the 1830 comma preceding the phrase with a dash. Also note that some of the editions from 1837 to 1892 replaced the 1830 question mark at the end of the phrase with a period, as if the purpose of the because-phrase is to parenthetically suggest a possible answer, rhetorically asked, for all the surrounding rhetorical questions:

In any case, the use of the because- phrase is unusual and should probably be separated off in some way from the surrounding rhetorical questions, with either commas or dashes.

Summary: In Mormon 8:38, treat the intermediate because-phrase as a parenthetical addition to the series of why questions throughout the larger passage in verses 38–40.

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

References