In this passage there is a question whether the determiner the should be repeated when friends and kindreds are conjoined. In the printer’s manuscript, the definite article the is repeated, but it is lacking in the 1830 edition. In verse 2, when copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟, Oliver Cowdery initially repeated the determiner his for the conjoined kindred and friends, but then somewhat later he crossed out the repeated his (the level of ink flow for the crossout is heavier):
This scribal error on Oliver’s part in verse 2 suggests that he could have accidentally repeated the the here in verse 6 but without catching his error. It is possible that Oliver’s extra repetition of the his in verse 2 may have been the result of him having already repeated his before kindred (“according to his family and his kindred and (his) friends”). Here in verse 6, on the other hand, kindreds is preceded by only one conjunct, namely, the friends (“of the friends and (the) kindreds of them which murdered the prophets”), so the motivation for repeating the the would have been weaker than the motivation for repeating the his in verse 2.
Elsewhere in the text, when friends is immediately conjoined with kindred(s), the determiner is never repeated:
The only case where we get the repetition is when kindred(s) and friends are not immediately conjoined:
These examples argue that the correct reading in 3 Nephi 7:6 is without the repeated the (namely, “of the friends and kindreds”). Nonetheless, it should be noted that none of the other examples of conjoined friends and kindred(s) involve the definite article the as the determiner.
When we consider transmission errors, we find there is some evidence for the 1830 typesetter accidentally omitting the repeated the:
Also see under 3 Nephi 10:10 for another case where the 1830 typesetter may have once more omitted the repeated the. On the other hand, there is only one example of Oliver Cowdery adding a repeated the, and this one was only momentary and virtually immediately corrected by him (there is no change in the level of ink flow for the crossout):
Thus transmission errors support the longer reading with the repeated the in 3 Nephi 7:6. In general, the omission of words is much more common than adding words in the transmission of the early text (see the discussion under volume 3). Moreover, the Book of Mormon has many instances of the repeated determiner where modern English readers prefer the shorter reading without the repetition (see the discussion under conjunctive repetition in volume 3). Even though the determiner is usually not repeated in instances of conjoined friends and kindred(s), it seems unlikely that Oliver would have added the repeated the on his own here in 3 Nephi 7:6. The critical text will therefore accept the reading in 𝓟 as the correct reading for this passage.
Summary: Restore in 3 Nephi 7:6 the reading in 𝓟 with the repeated the: “because of the secret combination of the friends and the kindreds of them which murdered the prophets”; transmission errors suggest that here the 1830 typesetter omitted the repeated the.