3 Nephi 17:21 Textual Variants

In the manuscripts, Oliver Cowdery frequently mixed up the spelling of bear and bare. In most cases, we are able to readily determine whether the context requires the present-tense bear or the past-tense bare. But in some cases, either reading will work, at least in theory. In this passage, 𝓞 apparently read bear since both 𝓟 and the 1830 read bear. In the editing for the 1920 LDS edition, bear was emended to bare. The same change was made in the following chapter:

• 3 Nephi 18:37
  • and the multitude heard not the words which he spake therefore they did not bear record but the disciples [bear 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQS|bare RT] record that he gave them power to give the Holy Ghost

The nearest other occurrences of bearing witness in this part of 3 Nephi almost always refer to the disciples and the multitude as doing so in the past tense; but in one case there is clear evidence that bearing witness can be expressed in the present tense (marked below with an arrow):

• 3 Nephi 11:15
  • and this they did do going forth one by one until they had all gone forth and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands and did know of a surety and did bear record that it was he of whom it was written by the prophets that should come
• 3 Nephi 17:15–16
  •   and the multitude did bear record which heard him
    → and after this manner do they bear record :
      the eye hath never seen
      neither hath the ear heard before
      so great and marvelous things
      as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father
• 3 Nephi 17:25
  • and the multitude did see and hear and bear record and they know that their record is true for they all of them did see and hear every man for himself
• 3 Nephi 18:39
  • and the disciples saw and did bear record that he ascended again into heaven

We see from these examples that both “did bear record” and “do bear record” occur. One interesting relationship is that the past-tense “did bear” occurs when the syntactically closest clause is in the past tense:

• 3 Nephi 11:15 they … did bear record that it was he
• 3 Nephi 17:15 and the multitude did bear record which heard him
• 3 Nephi 17:25 and the multitude did see and hear and bear record
• 3 Nephi 18:39 and the disciples saw and did bear record that he ascended again into heaven

But in the one case of “do bear”, the syntactically closest clause is the subsequent sentence, which is directly linked to the preceding present-tense clause:

• 3 Nephi 17:16
  • and after this manner do they bear record : the eye hath never seen neither hath the ear heard before so great and marvelous things

This correlation in tense between closely associated clauses argues that in 3 Nephi 17:21 and 3 Nephi 18:37 the verb should be in the past tense (in agreement with the 1920 editing):

• 3 Nephi 17:21
  • and when he had said these words he wept and the multitude bare record of it
• 3 Nephi 18:37
  • and the multitude heard not the words which he spake therefore they did not bear record but the disciples bare record that he gave them power to give the Holy Ghost

There are two cases in 3 Nephi 19 where a present-tense “do bear” occurs in an otherwise past-tense context, but in both these cases there is a preceding reference in the past tense to what was observed by the same witnesses, with the result that the reference to bearing record can be in the present tense:

• 3 Nephi 19:14 (original text)
  • and the multitude did witness it and do bear record
• 3 Nephi 19:33
  • and the multitude did hear and do bear record

For both these cases, the present-tense auxiliary verb do is firm, while here in 3 Nephi 17:21 and 3 Nephi 18:37 we have the difficulty of deciding between the homophones bear and bare. But also note that there are two instances in 3 Nephi 17 where the text first uses the past tense to refer to the multitude bearing record and then follows this with a comment in the present tense regarding the continuing nature of their witness:

• 3 Nephi 17:15–16
  • and the multitude did bear record which heard him and after this manner do they bear record ...
• 3 Nephi 17:25
  • and the multitude did see and hear and bear record and they know that their record is true

Thus the critical text will accept the 1920 emendation of bear to bare in 3 Nephi 17:21 and 3 Nephi 18:37. For further discussion of the two cases in 3 Nephi 19 of “do bear”, see under 3 Nephi 19:14; also see the general discussion under bear in volume 3.