Ether 2:20 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and if it [so be 1ABCDGHKPS|be so EFIJLMNOQRT] that the water come in upon thee …

Here the 1849 LDS edition changed the word order from “if it so be” to “if it be so”. As explained under 1 Nephi 22:17–18, the original text has instances of only the order so be in conditional clauses. Five cases of be so have shown up in the history of the text (as here in Ether 2:20); all are secondary.

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

References