Ether 1:43 Textual Variants

Here the printer’s manuscript reads this in “and this I will do unto thee”. The 1830 typesetter misread this as thus, giving “and thus I will do unto thee”. The 1908 RLDS edition, in accord with the reading in 𝓟, restored the this, but the LDS text has retained the secondary thus. Mix-ups between this and thus have been quite common in the history of the text, although all of the examples except this one involve the scribes rather than the typesetters. For some examples, see under Alma 11:21.

Theoretically, either this or thus will work here in Ether 1:43. Yet elsewhere the text has examples of only “(all) this will I do”:

• 1 Nephi 17:53 and this will I do
• Jacob 5:53 and this will I do
• Mosiah 12:7 and all this will I do
• Mosiah 12:8 yea even this will I do
• Mosiah 24:14 and this will I do
• 3 Nephi 28:9 and all this will I do

It is worth noting here that all these other examples have the inverted word order will I (that is, with the auxiliary will preceding the subject pronoun I ). In contrast to the six examples listed above, there are no examples in the text of “thus will I do” (or with the differing word order of “thus I will do”). The critical text will therefore restore the earliest reading here, “and this I will do unto thee” (but maintaining the noninverted word order I will ).