2 Nephi 2:13 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and if ye shall say there is no law ye shall also say there is no sin [& 1| ABCDEFGIJLMNOQRT|And HKPS] if ye shall say there is no sin ye shall also say there is no righteousness and if there be no righteousness there be no happiness and if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery and if these things are not there is no God and if there is no God we are not / neither the earth

In this verse we have a sequence of six logically connected and parallel if-clauses, where each one is connected to the previous clause by the same coordinating conjunction, and. Unfortunately, the 1830 typesetter accidentally dropped the second of these and ’s, thus disturbing the systematic cadence and parallelism of the original text. The 1874 RLDS edition restored the and, but without access to the printer’s manuscript.

Summary: Restore the missing and in 2 Nephi 2:13 (“and if ye shall say there is no sin”).

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

References