2 Nephi 33:9 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
but behold for none of these [I cannot >js can I 1|I cannot A|can I BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] hope except they shall be reconciled unto Christ

In the original Book of Mormon text, multiple negatives combining not with none or no can be found, such as “they should not do none of these things” in 2 Nephi 26:32. The critical text will restore such instances of multiple negation, including here in 2 Nephi 33:9. For further discussion, see 2 Nephi 26:32 as well as negation in volume 3.

Also note here that Joseph Smith reversed the word order by placing the modal verb can before the subject pronoun I. Normally in English, such inverted order is expected after an initial adverbial phrase like “for none of these”.

Summary: Restore in 2 Nephi 33:9 the original multiple negative as well as the noninverted word order (“for none of these I cannot hope”).

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

References