Alma 17:13 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
they separated themselves and departed one from another trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest for they [supposed 1ABCDEFGIJKLMNOPQRST|suppose H] that great was the work which they had undertaken

The 1874 RLDS edition accidentally changed the past-tense supposed to the present-tense suppose. This obvious typo was corrected in the subsequent RLDS edition (1892), probably without reference to any other edition. The rest of the passage is in the past tense (“separated ... departed ... should meet … was ... had undertaken”). For another example where supposed was accidentally replaced by suppose (in this instance, when Oliver Cowdery originally took down Joseph Smith’s dictated text), see under Alma 56:37.

Summary: Maintain in Alma 17:13 the past-tense supposed, the reading of all the textual sources except the 1874 RLDS edition.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 3

References