2 Nephi 19:1 Textual Variants

Isaiah 9:1 (King James Bible) by the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations

The Book of Mormon reads “by the way of the Red Sea” rather than the King James “by the way of the sea”. John A. Tvedtnes has argued that the extra red is an error (see page 45, “The Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon”, FARMS preliminary report, 1984). The context implies that this sea is the Sea of Galilee, especially since the inheritance for the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali was in this region (as described in Joshua 19). Note, in particular, that when this prophecy of Isaiah’s is quoted in the New Testament, “the sea” is definitely interpreted as referring to the Sea of Galilee:

• Matthew 4:12–15
  • now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison he departed into Galilee and leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum which is upon the sea coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet saying the land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim by the way of the sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles

Tvedtnes argues that the change to Red Sea derived from previous references in the Book of Mormon to the Red Sea: “This appears to be a case of scribal overcorrection, due to prior mention of the Red Sea in the [Book of Mormon] text.” The examples in 1 Nephi, however, do not show any particular similarity to the phraseology in 2 Nephi 19:1. In particular, the word way never collocates with Red Sea:

• 1 Nephi 2:5 by the borders near the shore of the Red Sea
• 1 Nephi 2:5 in the wilderness in the borders which was nearer the Red Sea
• 1 Nephi 2:8 and it emptied into the Red Sea
• 1 Nephi 2:9 the waters of the river emptied into the fountain of the Red Sea
• 1 Nephi 4:2 for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea
• 1 Nephi 4:2 and were drownded in the waters of the Red Sea
• 1 Nephi 16:14 which was in the borders near the Red Sea
• 1 Nephi 17:26 the waters of the Red Sea was divided hither and thither
• 1 Nephi 17:27 the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea

A more likely source for the intrusive red in the Book of Mormon text is the explicit phrase “by the way of the Red Sea”, which occurs four times in the King James Bible:

• Numbers 14:25
  • tomorrow turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea
• Numbers 21:4
  • and they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom
• Deuteronomy 1:40
  • turn you and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea
• Deuteronomy 2:1
  • then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea

It appears that familiarity with this specific phrase led to replacing sea with Red Sea in 2 Nephi 19:1. This proposal implies that the intrusive red (actually /su¯f/ ‘reed’ in the original Hebrew) may have originally been on the plates of brass or that Nephi himself added the word as he copied the Isaiah text from the plates of brass onto his small plates. Further, there is no evidence within the Book of Mormon manuscripts themselves that any of the scribes ever added red to the word sea (out of 82 occurrences), even as an initial error that was immediately corrected. This evidence suggests that the intrusive red in 2 Nephi 19:1, even though it may be a mistake, is a part of the original Book of Mormon text. Thus the critical text will maintain the earliest textual reading, “by the way of the Red Sea”.