for it came to pass that after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me [wherefor 0|wherefore
>js NULL 1|wherefore A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] [as 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT|as >js NULL >js as 1|As PS] I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught
away in the Spirit of the Lord
For this complex passage, Joseph Smith deleted the word wherefore in his editing for the 1837 edition. He also experimented with deleting the following as, but he ended up
restoring it. Elsewhere, the text typically retains the wherefore since it is used to make the reader understand that the following main clause is resultive (that is, a direct result of
conditions just stated). In a few other cases, when the initial dependent clause or phrase was complex, Joseph deleted the wherefore:
- Nephi 19:23
- and I did read many things unto them which were in the books of Moses but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer [wherefore
0A|wherefore >js NULL 1| BDEFIJLMNOPQRST|Wherefore CGHK] I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah
- Nephi 6:11
- wherefore after they are driven to and fro for thus saith the angel many shall be afflicted in the flesh and shall not be suffered to perish because of the prayers of the faithful
[wherefore 0A|wherefore >js NULL 1| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] they shall be scattered and smitten and hated
- Jacob 7:3
- and he knowing that I Jacob had faith in Christ which should come [wherefore 0A|wherefore >js NULL 1| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] he sought much opportunity that he might
come unto me
- The Words of Mormon 1:18
-
wherefore with the help of these king Benjamin by laboring with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul and also the prophets [wherefore >js
NULL 1|wherefore A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] [they >js NULL 1|they A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] did once more establish peace in the land
In two of these examples, part of the motivation for the deletion seems to have been the repetition of the wherefore. In any case, all of these examples of editing are found in the small
plates of Nephi. (I count the Words of Mormon as textually part of the small plates, although they may have been physically written on other plates.) For further analysis, see the discussion
under these passages.
Yet there are cases where the resultive wherefore has been retained in complex passages. Here are two that start out with “it came to pass” (just as in 1 Nephi 11:1):
- 1 Nephi 2:16
- and it came to pass that I Nephi being exceeding young nevertheless being large in stature and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God [wherefore
01ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT|Wherefore PS] I cried unto the Lord
- Ether 10:1
- and it came to pass that Shez which was a descendant of Heth for Heth had perished by the famine and all his household save it were Shez [wherefore
1ABCDFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|wherfore E] Shez began to build up again a broken people
Note also that in these two examples the repeated subject (occurring after wherefore) is not deleted, as it was in the Words of Mormon 1:18.
Joseph Smith’s editing in 1 Nephi 11:1 appears to be one more example of his attempts at clarifying the text; as noted before, this type of editing occurred chiefly in the first part of the Book of
Mormon. The critical text will restore the wherefore in all these cases.
