and ye have received the Holy Ghost which witness of the Father and the Son unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made that if ye [entered 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRT|enter S] in by the way ye
should receive
The original reading here in 2 Nephi 31:18 uses the past-tense entered in an if-clause; this pasttense usage is a form of the subjunctive and corresponds with the historically
past-tense modal form should that is found in the associated main clause (“ye should receive”). The 1953 RLDS edition replaced the subjunctive past-tense entered with the
present indicative enter.
Similar examples of such past-tense subjunctive usage are found elsewhere in if-clauses in the Book of Mormon text:
- Alma 37:22
- therefore the Lord said if they did not repent they should be destroyed from off the face of the earth
- Alma 41:3
- and if their works were good in this life and the desires of their hearts were good that they should also at the last
day be restored unto that which is good
- Alma 42:19
- now if there was no law given
—if a man murdered he should die—
would he be afraid he should die if he should murder
Such usage is also found in the King James Bible:
- John 9:22
- for the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ he should be put out of the synagogue
- John 11:57
- now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were he should shew it that
they might take him
- Galatians 1:10
- for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ
