Alma 10:28 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and now it came to pass that when Amulek had spoken these words the people cried out against him [𝓢① NULL >p 𝓢② saying 1|saying ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] now we know that this man is a child of the devil

Here Oliver Cowdery inserted saying in pencil, apparently while in the print shop and without reference to the original manuscript. The written saying definitely looks like Oliver’s hand, unlike the choose that the 1830 compositor wrote in 𝓟 earlier in verse 19 (when he corrected cause to choose, as discussed above under Alma 10:19). Here in verse 28, the penciled-in punctuation in 𝓟 is heavier than that of the supralinearly inserted saying, which implies that the saying was added at a different time than the punctuation (for choose in verse 19, the level of graphite is the same as that of the immediately surrounding punctuation).

As far as determining whether saying should be accepted, it really makes no difference who made the insertion. The fact that the word is in pencil strongly implies that it was inserted in the print shop and without reference to 𝓞. For similar examples of earlier emendations made in pencil in the print shop and apparently by Oliver Cowdery, see the discussion regarding the following changes: save to serve in Mosiah 4:14, chance to change in Mosiah 5:2, and the insertion of unto in Mosiah 11:23. Also see the discussion regarding corrections made in pencil to 𝓞 when it was used to proof gathering 22 of the 1830 edition (pages 337–352, covering Alma 41:8 – 46:30): namely, the insertion of O in Alma 42:31, the change of then to than in Alma 43:6, and the change of hand to hands in Alma 43:44. (This later editing of 𝓞 is also referred to on plate 11 in volume 1 of the critical text.)

Elsewhere in the manuscripts there is evidence that Oliver Cowdery would sometimes add the word saying:

See the discussion under 1 Nephi 7:1, which shows that the use of saying is textually inappropriate when followed by an indirect quote. In addition, sometimes Oliver accidentally omitted the word saying:

In any event, it appears that the corrector in Alma 10:28 (probably Oliver Cowdery) felt there was a need for the connective saying after “cried out against him” and before the direct quote that followed. As in the discussion regarding choose in Alma 10:19, this emendation needs to have independent support before it can be accepted.

Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text, there are 40 occurrences of saying following the verb cry and preceding a direct quote. But there are 15 other cases where the verb cry introduces a direct quote but without an intervening saying, including two earlier in this chapter of Alma:

In the second of these (in verse 21), there is a subordinate conjunction that before the direct quote, yet we still have a direct quote (unlike modern English, which requires an indirect quote after the that).

But closer to Alma 10:28 are two occurrences of the verb cry with saying before the direct quote; it was probably these two closer occurrences that served as the motivation for adding the intrusive saying in verse 28:

In addition, there are two other occurrences in the text of “cry out against someone”, and in each instance saying occurs before the direct quote:

But in general, there are enough examples without saying to argue that either reading is possible in Alma 10:28. The critical text will therefore restore the original reading in 𝓟 and reject Oliver Cowdery’s emendation, the additional saying.

Summary: Remove from Alma 10:28 the intrusive saying that was added in the 1830 print shop, apparently by Oliver Cowdery; there are quite a few additional examples of the verb cry being directly followed by a direct quote yet without an intervening saying.

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

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