1 Nephi 7:12–13 Textual Variants

Here the original text twice read “faithful in him”, where him refers to the Lord. For the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith edited the preposition in to to, which is what we expect in modern English. Nonetheless, Moroni 9:25 has retained the expression (“be faithful in Christ”). The same expression is also found in one of the witness statements:

three-witness statement and we know that if we are faithful in Christ we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men

Similarly, the King James Bible has an example using the preposition in for this expression:

• 1 Corinthians 4:17
  • for this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord

There are no other examples in the Book of Mormon of “faithful to the Lord” except for these two edited examples in 1 Nephi 7:12–13. There are, however, examples of faithful taking the archaic preposition unto rather than the modern to:

• Alma 44:4
  • God will support and keep and preserve us
    so long as we are faithful unto him
• Alma 48:7
  • Moroni on the other hand had been a preparing the minds of the people
    to be faithful unto the Lord their God
• Ether 1:38
  • let us be faithful unto the Lord
• Ether 8:13
  • will ye swear unto me that ye will be faithful unto me
    in the thing which I shall desire of you

All of these passages refer to one’s faithfulness to someone, yet the preposition is either in or unto but not to. Thus the critical text will restore the two uses of in in 1 Nephi 7:12–13.