1 Nephi 5:10 Textual Variants

The 1892 RLDS edition accidentally dropped the definite article the in the phrase “the plates of brass”. This error did not persist, especially because these plates had already been identified in the text. The only time “plates of brass” occurs without any determiner is at the very beginning when the text first refers to them:

• 1 Nephi 3:3
  • for behold Laban hath the record of the Jews and also a genealogy of my forefathers and they are engraven upon plates of brass

From that point on, we have either “the plates of brass” (23 times) or “these plates of brass” (3 times), which is what we expect in English.