Here in his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith deleted the subordinate conjunction as. Yet elsewhere in the current text there are numerous examples of an initial
as-clause followed by a finite clause beginning with therefore:
- Alma 31:5
- and now as the preaching of the word had had a greater tendency to lead the people to do that which was just
—yea it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword or any thing else which had happened unto them— therefore Alma thought it was expedient
that they should try the virtue of the word of God
- Alma 34:33
- and now as I said unto you before as ye have had so many witnesses therefore I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of
your repentance until the end
- Alma 43:6
- and now as the Amlicites were of a more wicked and a murderous disposition than the Lamanites were / in and of themselves therefore Zerahemnah appointed chief captains
over the Lamanites …
- Alma 49:15
- and as the city of Noah had hitherto been the weakest part of the land therefore they would march thither to battle
- Alma 56:57
- and as we had no place for our prisoners that we could guard them to keep them from the armies of the Lamanites therefore we sent them to the land of Zarahemla
- Helaman 5:2
- for as their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people and they which chose evil were more numerous than they which chose good
therefore they were ripening for destruction
- Ether 3:17
- and now as I Moroni said I could not make a full account of these things which are written therefore it sufficeth me to say that Jesus shewed himself unto this man in the
spirit
There are three other cases where therefore was deleted from this kind of construction, all by Joseph Smith in his editing for the 1837 edition:
- 2 Nephi 5:21
- wherefore as they were white and exceeding fair and delightsome that they might not be enticing unto my people [therefore >js NULL 1|therefore A|
BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them
- Alma 42:6
- therefore as they were cut off from the tree of life [therefore 0A|therefore >js NULL 1| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] they should be cut off from the face of
the earth
- Alma 42:9
- therefore as the soul could never die and the fall had brought upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal —that is / they were cut off from the presence of
the Lord— [therefore 01APS| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] it was expedient that mankind should be reclaimed from this spiritual death
In each of these three cases, there is a preceding wherefore or therefore before the as; the apparent intent of Joseph’s editing in these three cases was to avoid the
repetition of wherefore and therefore. For further discussion, see under 2 Nephi 5:21.
The real problem with Mosiah 23:12 results from the 1830 compositor’s decision to place a semicolon (which leads to closure) just before the finite therefore- clause. This punctuation
ended up creating a stranded subordinate clause, which induced Joseph Smith to remove the as in his editing for the 1837 edition. Instead, the semicolon should have been replaced by a
comma, as in the numerous examples of the as-therefore construction that have been retained in the Book of Mormon text. In another passage, the 1830 compositor omitted the as
(perhaps accidentally), which then permitted him to place a semicolon before the therefore-clause:
- Alma 3:18
- nevertheless [as 1| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] they had come out in open rebellion against God [ 1|; ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] therefore it was expedient that the curse
should fall upon them
For a passage where an original as may have been removed from the original manuscript itself, see Alma 57:3.
