Moroni 6:9 Textual Variants

The 1907 LDS vest-pocket edition inserted the infinitival to before the verb exhort. The 1911 LDS edition also added this extra to, perhaps independently. Subsequent LDS editions have followed this usage since it seems so appropriate given the otherwise systematic use of the infinitival to throughout the passage (“to preach ... or to pray or to supplicate or to sing”).

The repeated to is possible but not necessary, as seen in the following pair of nearly identical examples involving whether; the first has the repeated to, the second does not:

• Alma 12:31 whether to do evil or to do good
• Alma 41:7 whether to do good or do evil

These two examples from Alma involve a choice between two options, good and evil. But in Moroni 6:9, there are five options, each of which has the repeated to except for exhort. One could argue, however, that the to does not occur with exhort because it essentially means the same as the preceding preach. But this would not explain why the to is then repeated for the conjunctive pair “to pray or to supplicate”, since both pray and supplicate are semantically close.

When we look at the history of the text, we find there are seven cases in the printed editions where a repeated infinitival to has been lost:

• Jacob 7:2 (omitted in the 1892 RLDS edition)
  • to preach among the people and [to 01ABCDEFGHIJLMNOPQRST| K] declare unto them that there should be no Christ
• Alma 12:4 (omitted in the 1840 edition)
  • to revile us and [to 1ABDEFIJLMNOPQRST| CGHK] cast us out
• Alma 16:2 (omitted in the 1837 edition)
  • to slay the people and [to 1APS| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] destroy the city
• Helaman 7:5 (omitted in the 1830 edition)
  • to rule and [to 1| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] do according to their wills
• 3 Nephi 1:14 (omitted in the 1837 edition)
  • to fulfill all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world and [to 1APRST| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQ] do the will both of the Father and of the Son
• 3 Nephi 6:4 (omitted in the 1892 RLDS edition)
  • to prosper and [to 1ABCDEFGHIJLMNOPQRST| K] wax great
• Ether 6:18 (omitted in the 1840 edition)
  • to spread upon the face of the land and [to 1ABDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST| C] multiply and to till the earth

Oliver Cowdery also tended to omit the repeated to. Here are three cases in 𝓟 where he initially omitted the repeated to but corrected his error; in each case, 𝓞 is extant and has the repeated to:

• Alma 52:13
  • and thus he was endeavoring to harass the Nephites and [to 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|NULL > to 1] draw away a part of their forces to that part of the land
• Alma 62:45
  • to repent of their sins and [to 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|NULL >+ to 1] be baptized unto the Lord their God
• Alma 62:48
  • to multiply and [to 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|NULL > to 1] wax exceeding strong again in the land

Despite this strong tendency to omit the repeated to, there is one firm case in the manuscripts where Oliver Cowdery persisted in adding an intrusive to:

• Alma 57:13
  • to keep them or [to >% put 0|to put 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] them to death

In this case, Oliver started to write the repeated to in 𝓞, but then he immediately erased it and overwrote the abraded to with the beginning of the following word, put. Yet when he came to copying this infinitival clause into 𝓟, he reinserted the repeated to, this time without correcting it, thus writing in 𝓟 “to keep them or to put them to death”. This example shows that Oliver Cowdery could insert a repeated to as well as delete it.

Ultimately, the safest solution here in Moroni 6:9 is to accept the reading of the earliest textual sources—namely, without any repeated to (thus “whether to preach or exhort”). The critical text will therefore remove the repeated to since it is lacking in the earliest extant source, the printer’s manuscript.