3 Nephi 14:4–5 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
let me pull [out >js NULL 1|out A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] the mote out of thine eye … first cast [out 1A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast [out 1A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] the mote out of thy brother’s eye

Matthew 7:4–5 (King James Bible) let me pull out the mote out of thine eye … first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye

For the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith removed the redundant out ’s from these three sentences. Interestingly, however, the redundant out ’s are in the literally translated King James Bible, as also in the original Greek (which uses the prepositional verb ekballein ‘to throw out’ along with the preposition ek ‘out’). The critical text will restore the three redundant out ’s in this passage. For other examples of redundant adverbs and prepositions in the original Book of Mormon text, see under Jacob 7:8; for another example involving the adverb out, see under Alma 62:6.

Summary: Restore the three occurrences of redundant out in 3 Nephi 14:4–5, thus restoring the same redundancy that occurs in Matthew 7:4–5.

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

References