3 Nephi 1:16 Textual Variants

and there were many which had not believed the words of the prophets [ 01ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQS|who RT] fell to the earth and became as if they were dead

The editors for the 1920 LDS edition inserted the relative pronoun who since the original text here in 3 Nephi 1:16 seems awkward and perhaps even ungrammatical (“and there were many … fell to the earth”). However, this construction is original to the Book of Mormon text, and there are still examples in the text of “there were many” followed by a subjectless finite predicate, with some intervening text but no relative pronoun:

Helaman 3:12
- there were many of the people of Ammon which were Lamanites by birth did also go forth into this land
3 Nephi 19:3
- there were many
  —yea an exceeding great number—
  did labor exceedingly all that night

The critical text will therefore restore the original text here in 3 Nephi 1:16.

Elsewhere in the text, there are similar existential expressions that end with a subjectless finite predicate (again, without any relative pronoun):

Enos 1:23 (“there was nothing ... would keep them from going down”)
- I say there was nothing short of these things and exceeding great plainness of speech would keep them from going down speedily to destruction
Alma 42:16–17 (“except there were a punishment … should be affixed”)
- now repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment which also was as eternal as the life of the soul should be affixed opposite to the plan of happiness which was as eternal also as the life of the soul now how could a man repent except he should sin

See under each of these passages for further examples.

Summary: Restore in 3 Nephi 1:16 the original reading without the expected relative pronoun for a sentence-final finite predicate: “and there were many which had not believed the words of the prophets fell to the earth and became as if they were dead”; similar examples of this kind of existential construction occurred fairly frequently in the original text (and most are still found in the current text).

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 5

References