1 Nephi 17:1 Textual Variants

and it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth and we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness and our women [bare 01|did bear ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] children in the wilderness

The 1830 typesetter added the auxiliary verb do, undoubtedly because of the extensive use of the paraphrastic do earlier in the verse (“we did again take our journey … and we did travel ... and we did travel”). The original bare is, of course, perfectly acceptable. There are, for instance, other well-supported instances of the simple past-tense bare in the Book of Mormon text, including the following three involving quotations from Isaiah:

2 Nephi 8:2 (see Isaiah 51:2)
- look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah she that bare you
2 Nephi 18:3 (see Isaiah 8:3)
- and I went unto the prophetess and she conceived and bare a son
Mosiah 14:12 (see Isaiah 53:12)
- and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bare the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors

There are other examples in the transmission of the text where the auxiliary verb do has been accidentally added; in the following two instances, Oliver Cowdery added the do as he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟:

1 Nephi 2:16
- wherefore I [cried 0|did cry 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] unto the Lord
1 Nephi 18:11
- nevertheless the Lord [suffered 0|did suffer 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] it that he might shew forth his power

(See the discussion under these two passages.) Here in 1 Nephi 17:1, there is no reason why the original bare should not be restored.

Summary: Replace did bear in 1 Nephi 17:1 with bare, the reading of the two manuscripts.

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

References