1 Nephi 17:53 Textual Variants

Here we have an occurrence of the historical present saith that has never been edited to said. The probable reason for this lack of editing is that normally the present-tense phrase “saith the Lord (God)” is used to refer to prophetic pronouncements, ones that last beyond the immediate present. A nearby example has this more common interpretation for “saith the Lord”:

• 1 Nephi 19:16
  • yea and all the people which are of the house of Israel will I gather in saith the Lord according to the words of the prophet Zenos from the four quarters of the earth

The critical text will, of course, restore all instances of the historical present whenever they are found in the earliest textual sources. This instance of the historical present in 1 Nephi 17:53 will therefore remain unchanged. For a similar example, see 2 Nephi 6:11 (“for thus saith the angel”). For a general discussion, see historical present in volume 3.