1 Nephi 11:6 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and blessed art thou Nephi because thou believest in the Son of the Most High [𝓢③ NULL >+ 𝓢② God 0|God 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]

The original scribe (scribe 3 of 𝓞) wrote “the son of the most high”, which Oliver Cowdery (scribe 1) later corrected by supralinearly inserting God with slightly heavier ink flow, so that the text then read “the son of the most high God”. Close by, nearer the beginning of this verse, the text reads “Hosanna to the Lord the most high God”, which was probably the source for Oliver’s emendation.

Generally the Book of Mormon text has “most high God” (five times), but “Most High” occurs once in 2 Nephi 24:14 (which quotes Isaiah 14:14). Although the Book of Mormon text strongly favors “most high God”, both “Most High” and “most high God” are found in the text of the King James Bible, with “Most High” occurring more frequently (32 times, versus 11 times for “most high God”). When the phrase is preceded by “Son of”, we have only one occurrence, namely in Mark 5:7, for which the reading is “Jesus thou Son of the most high God”. In any event, the Book of Mormon reading “the Son of the Most High” in 1 Nephi 11:6 works perfectly well, and Oliver Cowdery’s emendation was unnecessary.

Summary: Restore near the end of 1 Nephi 11:6 the original reading “the Son of the Most High”; although unique for the Book of Mormon, this expression is perfectly acceptable.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 1

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