1 Nephi 11:30 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and it came to pass that the angel spake unto me [ 0|again 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] saying …

Three times in 1 Nephi 11, Oliver Cowdery felt he should insert again as he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟. Besides the example listed above, we have these two nearby examples:

Of course, in each case the angel had already spoken to Nephi, so it is quite obvious that by adding again, nothing false is stated.

In the entire account of Nephi’s vision of the tree of life, when reference is made to the next thing the angel says, again is used only three times in the original text:

Oliver Cowdery’s extra again ’s are found in the same chapter (in verses 30, 35, and 36). Elsewhere in Nephi’s account of what the angel said to him (1 Nephi 11–14), the text never uses again, nor does Oliver add any more again ’s either. Excluding the very first reference to what the angel said (in 1 Nephi 11:14, where again would be impossible), there are a total of 39 places where again could have theoretically been used. The original text had three cases of again, Oliver Cowdery added three more, but for the other 33 cases, there has never been any use of again (even accidentally in the transmission of the text). Especially striking is the lack of again in all 27 references to what the angel said in the rest of this account (1 Nephi 12–14). Thus Oliver’s brief inclination to add again near the end of chapter 11 should be ignored. Of course, those occasional cases of its actual use in the original text should be maintained.

Summary: Remove the three intrusive occurrences of again that Oliver Cowdery inserted in 1 Nephi 11:30, 35, 36; there are three legitimate occurrences of again in the same part of the text (1 Nephi 11:26, 31, 32).

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

References