Ether 1:19–20 Textual Variants

Here in Ether 1:19–20, the 1837 edition replaced Corom with Corum (both times). Yet the change was not made later in Ether 10:16–17 (where the name Corom appears twice). The original manuscript is not extant for any of the four occurrences, but the printer’s manuscript (as well as the 1830 edition) consistently has the spelling Corom.

Surprisingly, the 1908 RLDS edition did not restore the correct Corom here in Ether 1, even though 𝓟 reads that way. On the other hand, the 1920 LDS edition restored the correct spelling,

yet the correction was not marked in the committee copy. This is because the correction was made near the end of the editing process. The 1837 typo was discovered, it would appear, by James Talmage’s secretary, Helga Pedersen Tingey. Jan Foulger Tingey (wife of William H. Tingey Jr., son of Helga Tingey) has provided the following information on this correction (personal communication, 26 February 2007):

• My husband’s mother, Helga Pedersen Tingey, worked for Elder James E. Talmage for years around 1920. Elder Talmage was fulfilling his assignment made by the First Presidency to arrange the Book of Mormon into chapters and paragraphs with extensive cross-references and footnotes. He hired Helga to help him proofread every page. While she was doing this important work she discovered an error in the Book of Mormon. She told her children it was in Ether where Moroni made a faulty name reference. When she brought this to Elder Talmage’s attention he said, “Sister Pedersen, all the money the church has paid you in all the years you have worked couldn’t begin to pay you for finding this one error!” It was sent to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve and the correction was made.

The statement that Talmage’s assignment was to arrange the Book of Mormon into chapters and paragraphs (that is, verses) is not accurate; that was done earlier by Orson Pratt for the 1879 LDS edition. In addition, Talmage and the committee revised Pratt’s cross references and eliminated footnotes of a more speculative nature, such as those identifying Book of Mormon geography. Although the Tingey family does not remember what name was changed, the restoration of Corom here in Ether 1:19–20 is the only one that was changed in the book of Ether for the 1920 edition. Moreover, it was the only 1920 name change that was not marked in the committee copy. The other name changes (including the Book of Mormon word shiblon) were, it would appear, determined earlier by Talmage himself and are so marked in the committee copy:

• Bethabara in place of Bethabary 1 Nephi 10:9
• Zion in place of Sion 2 Nephi 22:6
• shiblons in place of shublons Alma 11:19 Shimnilom in place of Shimnilon Alma 23:12 Zenock in place of Zenoch Alma 34:7
• Jordan in place of Jordon Mormon 5:3

(For discussion of the Zenoch change, see under 1 Nephi 19:10; the five other changes are discussed in their own places.) In addition, the 1911 LDS edition (which served as the copytext for the 1920 edition) has four obvious typos for names, each of which was corrected in the 1920 edition; the two typos for Zarahemla were obvious and were not marked in the 1920 committee copy:

• Zarahelma corrected to Zarahemla Omni 1:19
• Lihmi corrected to Limhi Mosiah 21:32
• Amakelites corrected to Amalekites Alma 24:29
• Zararemla corrected to Zarahemla Alma 58:4

The discovery that Corum was an error for Corom seems to have occurred as Helga Tingey was proofing against the 1830 edition (the printer’s manuscript would not have been available at that time). It is true that the correct Corom occurs later in Ether 10, but there would have been no way to determine which reading, Corum (in Ether 1) or Corom (in Ether 10), was the correct spelling without consulting either 𝓟 or the 1830 edition.

This event is indirectly referenced in James Harris (editor), The Essential James E. Talmage (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1997), xxix: “He was customarily meticulous, making sure there were no errors or omissions, and praised his secretary when she found an error he had missed.”