2 Nephi 20:10 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
as my hand hath founded the kingdoms of the idols

Isaiah 10:10 (King James Bible) as my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols

The Book of Mormon text for 2 Nephi 20:10 has founded instead of found. There are several examples elsewhere in the text that refer to the founding of churches, such as the references to the devil as the founder of the great and abominable church (in 1 Nephi 13–14) or to Alma as the founder of the Nephite church (in Mosiah 23:16 and Mosiah 29:47). And 2 Nephi 24:32, an Isaiah passage, refers to the Lord as the founder of Zion (“the Lord hath founded Zion”). But the problem here in 2 Nephi 20:10 is that the Assyrian king did not found the kingdoms of the idols. Instead, he seized them and plundered them, and he’s threatening to do the same to Jerusalem, another kingdom of idols (see verse 11: “shall I not … so do to Jerusalem and to her idols”).

John A. Tvedtnes has suggested that in 2 Nephi 20:10 the original word found was “apparently misunderstood by the scribe” (page 49, “The Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon”, FARMS preliminary report, 1984). Oliver Cowdery could have accidentally written down founded in 𝓞 or as he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟. It is also possible that Joseph Smith himself misread found as founded. The overriding factor in creating an error here is that one expects kingdoms to be founded rather than found. Unfortunately, there are no other cases in the Book of Mormon text where found has been accidentally replaced by founded (or vice versa), so we have no independent evidence for this specific error.

However, there are other instances in the Isaiah quotations where a single word has been replaced by a visually similar but different word. In two cases, we have clear evidence that Oliver Cowdery misread the word as he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟:

In addition, there are examples where a single word may have been miscopied but where 𝓞 is not extant:

Some of these may be errors in copying, but others appear to be intentional changes. For further discussion, see each passage.

Generally speaking, if a visually similar word in the Book of Mormon quotations of Isaiah does not make sense within the context of the passage, then the critical text will emend the word to agree with the corresponding King James word. But if the Book of Mormon word makes sense, that reading will be retained, even though an early scribal error may be involved. Since for this particular example in 2 Nephi 20:10 the word founded seems inappropriate, the critical text will replace founded (the reading in 𝓟) with the King James found.

Summary: Emend founded to found in 2 Nephi 20:10, thus making the text here agree with the King James reading (“as my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols”); found was probably misinterpreted as founded since kingdoms are typically founded rather than found.

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

References