Mosiah 7:33 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
but if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart and put your trust in him and serve him with all diligence of mind [& >js NULL 1|and A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] if ye do this he will—according to his own will and pleasure—deliver you out of bondage

For the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith eliminated what could be considered an intrusive and before the second if-clause. This second if-clause (“if ye do this”) summarizes the content of the first (and rather long) if-clause. Given the extra and, the first if-clause is incomplete and appears fragmented. Nonetheless, there is at least one other example in the text where an initial long if-clause is followed by a shorter if-clause that restates the first if-clause and is at the same time separated from that first if-clause by an and:

In this instance, we have a long intervening parenthetical statement (“and God will shew unto you with power and great glory at the last day that they are true”), which leads to starting over with a summarizing if-clause, yet with an intervening and, just like originally in Mosiah 7:33. Consequently, we should probably assume that the extra and ’s in Mosiah 7:33 and Moroni 7:35 are not errors but instead are actually intended.

Summary: Restore the and that originally preceded the summarizing if-clause in Mosiah 7:33; for a similar example, which has never been edited, see Moroni 7:35.

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

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