Ether 2:2 Textual Variants

Here the 1888 LDS edition added the auxiliary did to the conjoined verb phrase, giving “and they did also lay snares and did catch fowls of the air”. The error probably resulted from the multiple occurrence of the auxiliary did in the surrounding text. Since this edition never served as a copytext, no subsequent LDS edition continued this intrusive did. Occasionally Oliver Cowdery made the same error in his copywork , but only momentarily, as in this example:

• 3 Nephi 11:15
  • and it came to pass that the multitude went forth and [did > thrust 1|thrust ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] their hands into his side and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet

In that example, Oliver may have been prompted to add the did because of its occurrence in the following conjoined verb phrase. (See under Alma 53:13 for another instance where Oliver momentarily added the auxiliary did.) Here in Ether 2:2, either reading, with or without the did, is theoretically possible, so we follow the earliest textual sources, which lack the repeated did.