Ether 2:5–6 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and it came to pass that the Lord did go before them and did talk with them as he stood in a cloud and gave directions whither they should travel and it [came 1ABCDEFGIJLMNOPQRST|did come HK] to pass that they did travel in the wilderness and did build barges in the which they did cross many waters

Here the 1874 RLDS edition changed came to did come, probably because of the use of the auxiliary verb did in the surrounding text (“did go before them and did talk with them … did travel … did build barges … did cross many waters”). The 1908 RLDS edition restored the correct came. For another example of this error in the 1874 edition, see under Mosiah 28:5. As explained there, the Book of Mormon overwhelmingly prefers “it came to pass” over “it did come to pass”.

Summary: Maintain in Ether 2:6 the original instance of “it came to pass”.

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

References