Scribe 2 of the printer’s manuscript initially wrote “delighted in shedding of blood”, without the definite article the. Somewhat later, Oliver Cowdery, probably while proofing against the original manuscript, supralinearly inserted the definite article the.
Elsewhere the earliest text has examples of the fully nominalized gerundive “the shedding of blood” (22 times) and of the fully verbalized gerundive “shedding blood” (4 times). In Mosiah 29, there are three instances of “(the) shedding (of ) blood”. Besides the one in verse 40, there are two preceding ones:
The first takes the fully verbalized form, while the second is fully nominalized.
There is also one instance in the earliest text of “the shedding the blood”, which was changed to “the shedding of the blood” when the text was copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟:
The earliest reading in Alma 56:13 represents an intermediate gerundive form that is occasionally found in the earliest text. For further discussion of this intermediate type, see under 1 Nephi 17:32; also see the general discussion under gerundives in volume 3. See under Alma 56:13 for further discussion regarding the nominalized and verbalized forms for “(the) shedding (of ) blood”.
The important point here is that there are no examples elsewhere in the text of the nominalized “shedding of blood” without there also being a preceding definite article the; that is, if the preposition of occurs, then there is a preceding the. But it is very doubtful that Oliver Cowdery would have been aware of such a detail: the gerundive “shedding of blood” without a preceding the is possible in English, yet it occurs nowhere else in the Book of Mormon text. Thus the odds are that Oliver’s insertion of the the in Mosiah 29:40 represents the reading of the original manuscript, not his editing of the text.
Summary: Retain in Mosiah 29:40 the definite the in the phrase “the shedding of blood”; Oliver Cowdery’s inserted the is probably the reading of the original manuscript (no longer extant here).