Ether 8:10 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
wherefore if he shall desire of thee that ye shall give [unto him me 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNPQRST|me unto him O] to wife then shall ye say : I will give her if ye will bring unto me the head of my father the king

The word order “ye shall give unto him me to wife” in Ether 8:10 is difficult, which is probably why the 1907 LDS vest-pocket edition made the change to the normal word order (“ye shall give me unto him to wife”). The 1907 change may have been unintentional. We note that the normal order with unto immediately following the direct object is found in the next verse: “give her unto me to wife” (Ether 8:11). The critical text will maintain the difficult original word order in verse 10 since it is the reading of the earliest extant source, the printer’s manuscript. The 1907 edition never served as a copytext (which is not surprising since it is a vest-pocket edition); no subsequent LDS edition has ever followed the easier reading of that edition for Ether 8:10.

Summary: Maintain the difficult but original word order in Ether 8:10: “ye shall give give unto him me to wife” (the reading of all the early textual sources).

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

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