1 Nephi 13:12 Textual Variants

In copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟, Oliver Cowdery copied scribe 2’s where as was rather than were. Although scribe 2 of 𝓞 usually spelled were correctly (24 times without correction), there are six other places where he spelled were as where (including two nearby examples, one in the very same verse as the one listed above):

• 1 Nephi 3:12
  • the records which [where 0|were 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] engraven upon the plates of brass
• 1 Nephi 3:14
  • and my brethren [where >% were 0|were 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] about to return unto my father in the wilderness
• 1 Nephi 12:11
  • and their garments [where 0|were 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] white even like unto the Lamb of God
• 1 Nephi 13:12
  • and he went forth upon the many waters even unto the seed of my brethren which [where 0|were 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] in the promised land
• 1 Nephi 13:15
  • and I beheld that they [where 0|were 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] white and exceeding fair and beautiful
• 1 Nephi 13:29
  • and after that these plain and precious things [where 0|were 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] taken away it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles

In only one case (1 Nephi 3:14) did scribe 2 correct his spelling from where to were. And except for the one example being discussed here, Oliver Cowdery correctly copied the where as were. For a complete discussion of how the scribes spelled this form of the be verb, see were in volume 3.

The semantics of the passage is much improved when the plural were is used—namely, Columbus lived “among the Gentiles who were separated” from the Lamanites by the ocean. The referent for the relative pronoun which is the nearest noun phrase—that is, “the Gentiles”, not “a man” (namely, Columbus). The current text seems to imply that Columbus alone was separated from the Lamanites.