Mosiah 7:21 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
[Zenith >+ Zeniff 1|Zeniff ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] who was made king over this people

Here in the printer’s manuscript, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote Zenith, an English word, in place of Zeniff. Later he overwrote the th with ff; his correction to Zenith is with heavier ink flow. This is the third occurrence of the name in the text; all others are spelled Zeniff without variation. Oliver’s correction here in 𝓟 could be the result of either editing or proofing 𝓟 against 𝓞, no longer extant here.

Summary: Maintain the spelling Zeniff throughout the text; the initial occurrence of Zenith in Mosiah 7:21 was a simple scribal error.

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

References