1 Nephi 15:5 Textual Variants

When he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟, Oliver Cowdery accidentally added a plural s to the word destruction. The 1953 RLDS edition and the 1981 LDS edition have restored the singular, although the RLDS change was based on the expectation of English speakers, while the change in the LDS text was most probably based on reference to the original manuscript (which was used to restore in the 1981 edition both minor and major changes in the text).

The singular form destruction is much more frequent in the Book of Mormon than the plural destructions (154 versus 9 occurrences). The plural form destructions always has the meaning ‘destructive events’ and is not used to refer to the complete destruction of a people (as here in 1 Nephi 15:5). In virtually every plural example, destructions either occurs in conjunction with other plural nouns or is preceded by a plural quantifier such as all or many:

• 1 Nephi 19:4
  • wherefore I Nephi did make a record upon the other plates which gives an account or which gives a greater account of the wars and contentions and destructions of my people
• 2 Nephi 10:6
  • wherefore because of their iniquities / destructions famines pestilences and bloodsheds shall come upon them
• 2 Nephi 26:6
  • and they shall be visited with thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and all manner of destructions
• Enos 1:23
  • and there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness preaching and prophesying of wars and contentions and destructions ...
• Alma 50:21
  • for it has been their quarrelings and their contentions … and their abominations which were among themselves which brought upon them their wars and their destructions
• Alma 51:16
  • for it was his first care to put an end to such contentions and dissensions among the people for behold this had been hitherto a cause of all their [destructions 0|distructions 1|destruction ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]
• 3 Nephi 9:12
  • and many great destructions have I caused to come upon this land and upon this people because of their wickedness and their abominations
• 3 Nephi 10:14
  • and see and behold if all these deaths and destructions by fire and by smoke and by tempests and by whirlwinds …
• Ether 13:14
  • and as he dwelt in the cavity of a rock he made the remainder of this record viewing the [destruction >+ destructions 1| destructions ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] which came upon the people by night

In the last example, the text is not referring to the ultimate, complete destruction of the Jaredites but instead to the destructive events that they suffered day after day. This passage, as well as the one in Alma 51:16, shows early textual variation, but in both cases the context and meaning suggest that the plural destructions is correct. (See Alma 51:16 and Ether 13:14 for discussion.)

Textual variants also support the conclusion that the plural destructions is restricted to the meaning ‘destructive events’. In the following cases, a textual source shows an initial extension of the plural to cases involving the annihilation of a nation or an army or some other group of people, but then the error is subsequently corrected:

• 1 Nephi 22:17 (error and correction in 𝓞)
  • wherefore he will preserve the righteous by his power even if it so be that the fullness of his wrath must come and the righteous be preserved even unto the [destructions > destruction 0| destruction 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of their enemies by fire
• Alma 43:39 (error and correction in the 1852 edition)
  • and it came to pass that the Lamanites became frightened because of the great [destruction 01ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQRST| destructions > destruction F] among them
• Ether 10:2 (error and correction in 𝓟)
  • and it came to pass that Shez did remember the [destructions >% destruction 1|destruction ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of his fathers

Thus in 1 Nephi 15:5, the original manuscript as well as usage elsewhere in the text supports the singular reading.