Helaman 16:1 Textual Variants

The 1837 edition changed the plural words to word. Yet elsewhere at the beginning of this chapter, we always get the plural words when referring to belief in Samuel’s word(s):

• Helaman 16:2 but as many as there were which did not believe in the words of Samuel were angry with him
• Helaman 16:3 there were many more which did believe on his words
• Helaman 16:5 therefore as many as believed on the words of Samuel went forth unto him to be baptized
• Helaman 16:6 but the more part of them did not believe in the words of Samuel

In general, when referring to belief in someone’s word(s), but not referring to the Lord’s word(s), the plural words thoroughly dominates (47 to 2):

singular

• “to believe on X’s word” 2 times (Mosiah 18:7, Alma 1:7)

plural

• “to believe X’s words” 19 times (1 Nephi 2:16, etc.)
• “to believe in X’s words” 18 times (1 Nephi 2:17, etc.)
• “to believe on X’s words” 10 times (Mosiah 28:7, etc.)

If that person is the Lord, the examples of singular word and plural words are about equally divided, with six instances of word and four of words:

singular

• “to believe X’s word” 1 time (Alma 5:11)
• “to believe in X’s word” 4 times (Alma 9:17, Alma 14:8, Alma 32:16, Helaman 6:36)
• “to believe on X’s word” 1 time (Alma 32:22)

plural

• “to believe X’s words” 3 times (Ether 3:11, Ether 4:10, Ether 4:12)
• “to believe in X’s words” 1 time (3 Nephi 2:11)

For each of these cases, the critical text will follow the earliest textual sources in determining whether we have the singular word or the plural words. Thus here in Helaman 16:1, the critical text will restore the plural words (“as many as believed on his words”). The RLDS 1908 edition restored the plural to the RLDS text, in accord with the reading in 𝓟. The LDS text has retained the singular word.

There have been other cases of change in the grammatical number for word(s) when referring to belief:

• Alma 5:11 (editing by Joseph Smith for the 1837 edition)
  • did he not speak the [word >js words 1|word A|words BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of God and my father Alma believed them
• Helaman 6:36 (typo in the 1852 LDS edition)
  • and thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his [word 1ABCDEGHKPS|words FIJLMNOQRT]
• 3 Nephi 1:16 (apparently a change from words to word in the 1830 edition)
  • for they knew that the great plan of destruction which they had laid for those who believed in the [words 1MPQRST|word ABCDEFGHIJKLNO] of the prophets had been frustrated

See under each of these passages for discussion.