Mosiah 18:22 Textual Variants

Here in the printer’s manuscript, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote the verb in the present tense (namely, commandeth). Somewhat later, perhaps when proofing against 𝓞, he crossed out the -eth ending and supralinearly inserted the past-tense ending -ed (the level of the ink flow is somewhat heavier). The past tense is used throughout the larger passage, including a preceding occurrence of commanded and a following one (listed as 1 and 3 below):

• Mosiah 18:21–23 (corrected text in 𝓟)
  • and he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another but that they should look forward with one eye having one faith and one baptism having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another
    and thus he commanded them to preach and thus they became the children of God and
    he commanded them that they should observe the sabbath day

Oliver probably wrote the second commanded initially as commandeth because the two preceding present-participial clauses seem to imply the present tense: “having one faith and one baptism / having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another”. The critical text will maintain the use of the past-tense commanded throughout this passage.