Alma 36:14 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
yea and in fine so great had been my iniquities that the very [thoughts 01ABDEFIJLMNOPQS|thought CGHKRT] of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror

The original text here reads “the very thoughts”. The 1840 edition replaced the plural thoughts with the expected singular thought, as did the 1920 LDS edition. In accord with the reading of 𝓟, the 1908 RLDS edition restored the plural thoughts to the RLDS text. There is a second occurrence of “the very thoughts”, in Mosiah 28:3; see the discussion there for earlier examples in English of the expression “the very thoughts”. The critical text will restore the plural thoughts here in Alma 36:14.

Summary: Restore in Alma 36:14 the original plural thoughts, the reading of the earliest textual sources (“the very thoughts of coming into the presence of my God”).

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 4

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