1 Nephi 15:12 Textual Variants

behold I say unto you that the house of Israel was compared unto an olive tree by the Spirit of the Lord which was in our [ father 0T|fathers 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS] and behold are we not broken off from the house of Israel and are we not a branch of the house of Israel

Oliver Cowdery accidentally changed the singular father to the plural fathers. The 1981 LDS edition restored the correct reading. In this passage, Nephi is explaining to his brothers the meaning of their father’s prophecies about the house of Israel, mentioned earlier in 1 Nephi 10:

Nephi 10:12
- yea even my father spake much concerning the Gentiles and also concerning the house of Israel that they should be compared like unto an olive tree whose branches should be broken off and should be scattered upon all the face of the earth

Elsewhere there are 13 places where the text refers to the Spirit being in someone. In each case, the reference is to a single individual, not a group of people. In fact, there are five examples with the same general phraseology as 1 Nephi 15:12 (that is, “the Spirit of the Lord which is/was in X”):

Nephi 1:27
- but it was the Spirit of the Lord which was in him
2 Nephi 4:12
- according to the feelings of his heart and the Spirit of the Lord which was in him
The Words of Mormon 1:7
- according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me
Alma 11:22
- yea I will if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord which is in me
Ether 12:2
- for he could not be constrained because of the Spirit of the Lord which was in him

Thus the change to the plural fathers in 1 Nephi 15:12 is inconsistent with how this phrase is otherwise used in the Book of Mormon.

Summary: Maintain the singular father in 1 Nephi 15:12; the passage obviously refers to Lehi, not Nephi’s ancestral fathers.

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

References