1 Nephi 3:2 Textual Variants

At the beginning of relative clauses, the original Book of Mormon text preferred the archaic phraseology “in the which” over “in which”, as here in 1 Nephi 3:2. In this particular example, the 1858 Wright edition accidentally dropped the the, but all other editions have kept it.

The earliest textual sources indicate that the original text had 56 occurrences of “in the which” but only 5 of “in which”. In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith removed exactly half of the 56 occurrences of “in the which” (but left the other 28 unchanged). The majority of these changes (21 of them) are found in the book of Ether. In most cases of this editing, Joseph just deleted the the, but in one case he deleted in the (Alma 61:8), in two cases he replaced “in the which” with and (Ether 7:22 and Ether 7:23), and in five cases he deleted the the and replaced the in with a different preposition (by in Ether 10:10, Ether 10:15, and Ether 11:10; with in Ether 10:26; and during in Ether 10:32). In the last example, he also added the word time after the which (thus producing “during which time”).

This particular editing of Joseph Smith’s is quite unusual. Normally, Joseph stopped most of his stylistic editing after 1 Nephi. In this instance, however, he had worked through nearly 90 percent of the Book of Mormon before he apparently decided (in Mormon 2) that the phrase “in the which” should be edited out.

Elsewhere in the text, a few examples of “in the which” have been occasionally replaced by “in which” but never systematically. The current LDS and RLDS texts thus retain a mixed character with respect to the original “in the which”. The critical text will, of course, restore the original archaic usage whenever it is supported by the earliest textual sources. For a complete discussion, see in the which in volume 3.

This archaic “in the which” occurs relatively frequently in the King James Bible (14 times), as in these examples:

• Genesis 19:29
  • God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt
• Acts 17:31
  • because he hath appointed a day
    in the which he will judge the world in righteousness