Alma 10:14 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
which were hired or appointed by the people to administer the law at their times of [trials >% trial 1|trials ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] or at the trials of the crimes of the people before the judges

Scribe 2 initially wrote the plural trials in the phrase “at their times of trial”, but then he immediately erased the s. The immediacy of the correction indicates that the original manuscript read in the singular. Scribe 2’s mistaken trials was probably the result of the plural trials in the following explanatory phrase: “or at the trials of the crimes of the people before the judges”. This same error tendency seems to have influenced the 1830 typesetter since he too mistakenly replaced trial with trials (but unlike scribe 2 he did not correct his error). The expression “at their times of trial” is perfectly acceptable, and thus the critical text will restore the singular trial.

Summary: Restore in Alma 10:14 the singular trial in “at their times of trial”, which sounds perfectly fine and which was the probable reading of the original manuscript; maintain the plural trials in the following text: “or at the trials of the crimes of the people before the judges”.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 3

References