Alma 11:3 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and the judge receiveth for his wages according to his time a [𝓒① senire > 𝓒⑑ senine 1|senine ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of gold for a day or a senum of silver which is equal to a senine of gold

Scribe 2 of π“Ÿ originally wrote senine as senire, undoubtedly because Oliver Cowdery, here the scribe in π“ž, sometimes wrote n’s that look like r ’s. See, for instance, the discussion under Mosiah 2:15–16 regarding clean /clear and even /ever. As far as senine goes, elsewhere the word is consistently spelled senine, not senire (including a second time in Alma 11:3):

location π“ž π“Ÿ
Alma 11:3 β€”β€” senine
Alma 11:5 β€”β€” senine
Alma 11:7 β€”β€” senine
Alma 11:8 β€”β€” senine
Alma 30:33 Senine Senine
Nephi 12:26 β€”β€” senine
3 Nephi 12:26 β€”β€” senine

The four other instances in Alma 11 are in scribe 2’s hand (none are extant in π“ž). The Alma 30 instance is extant in π“ž and reads Senine (and the same in π“Ÿ). The instances in Alma 30 and 3 Nephi 12 are in Oliver Cowdery’s hand. For the two 3 Nephi 12 instances, the 1830 edition reads senine; for that portion of the text, the 1830 edition was set from π“ž, which means that there π“ž most probably read as senine. Thus all the other extant spellings support the traditional spelling senine, despite the fact that scribe 2 of π“Ÿ wrote the first occurrence as senire. The critical text will maintain the spelling senine.

Summary: Maintain the spelling senine throughout the Book of Mormon text.

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

References