2 Nephi 33:7–9 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
I have charity for my people and great faith in Christ that I shall meet many souls spotless at his judgment seat I have charity for the Jew I say Jew because I mean them from whence I came I also have charity for the Gentiles but behold for none of these I cannot hope except they shall be reconciled unto Christ and enter into the narrow gate and walk in the strait path which leads to life and continue in the path until the end of the day of probation

David Carlisle (personal communication, 23 October 2003) suggests that “none of these” should properly refer to all three of the preceding groups: Nephi’s own people, the Jews, and the Gentiles, not just the Gentiles. He points out that the LDS versification might lead one to think that the word these applied only to the Gentiles. This is one of the problems when each verse is printed as a short paragraph. The RLDS versification in chapter XV (the original chapter system) places the reference to Nephi’s people in verse 8 and the references to the Jews and the Gentiles in verse 9, while the phrase “none of these” follows in verse 10, thus helping the reader to interpret these as referring to at least the Jews and the Gentiles.

A similar use of “none of these” is found earlier in this discourse of Nephi’s here at the end of 2 Nephi:

In this case, however, the whole list is contained within a single verse (2 Nephi 26:32 in the LDS text and verse 110 of chapter XI in the RLDS text).

Summary: The phrase “none of these” in 2 Nephi 33:9 refers to a preceding list—namely, Nephi’s own people, the Jews, and the Gentiles (mentioned across verses 7–9); this phrase is not restricted to just the Gentiles, the only group mentioned in verse 9.

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

References