1 Nephi 8:9 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and it came to pass [that 0ACG|that >js NULL 1| BDEFHIJKLMNOPQRST] after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field

Clearly, the earliest textual sources (𝓞, 𝓟*, and the 1830 edition) have the subordinate conjunction that after “it came to pass” and before the after-clause. Joseph Smith deleted the that for the 1837 edition, although there is no apparent grammatical motivation for the deletion. In fact, the next edition (1840) restored the that, but then the 1874 RLDS edition omitted it once more. Here the critical text will follow the reading of the earliest textual sources, so the that will be restored in 1 Nephi 8:9. For general discussion regarding the deletion of that after “it came to pass”, see that in volume 3.

Summary: In accord with the reading of the earliest textual sources, restore the subordinate conjunction that after “it came to pass” in 1 Nephi 8:9.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 1

References