2 Nephi 18:6 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and rejoice in [Razin 1|Rezin ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]

Isaiah 8:6 (King James Bible) and rejoice in Rezin

The printer’s manuscript reads Razin, which is undoubtedly a scribal error for Rezin (the King James form of the name). Quite possibly the misspelling here was influenced by the fairly common English words raze and razor; the only word in the Oxford English Dictionary that begins with rez is the obscure rezai ‘a quilted counterpane or coverlet’. The 1830 compositor supplied the correct spelling for Rezin here in 2 Nephi 18:6; the name had previously occurred three times in the printer’s manuscript (2 Nephi 17:1, 4, 8) and had always been spelled correctly up to this point. In fact, between these three previous occurrences of Rezin and the one here in 2 Nephi 18:6, the word razor is found in 2 Nephi 17:20 (“in the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired”). Most probably this preceding occurrence of razor primed Oliver Cowdery to misspell Rezin as Razin the first time it occurred after razor.

Summary: Maintain the King James spelling Rezin in 2 Nephi 18:6 rather than the misspelled Razin found here in the printer’s manuscript.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 2

References