“The Iniquities of the Fathers Upon the Children”

Brant Gardner

Translation: There are only minor differences between this verse and Exodus 20:5. First, the "and again" is not present in Exodus. This is a continuation of the oral discourse. Even were Abinadi reading, this should be seen as an oral addition. The second change is again a shift from singular to plural. The Exodus text has "iniquity" and this text has "iniquities." As with the other change in number, this is probably an artifact of the translation process rather than a version difference, although Tvedtnes does note that the underlying Hebrew word may be used in a collective sense even though it is grammatically singular (Tvedtnes, John A. "Isaiah Textual Variants in the Book of Mormon." FARMS paper, 1981, p. 92).

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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