Alma 11:21–22 Textual Variants

Here in Alma 11:22, the 1830 typesetter accidentally omitted the clause I will, the reading of the printer’s manuscript. Although these words are not extant in the original manuscript, spacing between extant fragments strongly supports their original occurrence in 𝓞. In accord with the reading in 𝓟, the 1908 RLDS edition restored the I will to the RLDS text.

There are other examples of yea if in the Book of Mormon text, but none with the same construction as the secondary, shortened reading in Alma 11:22. Elsewhere in the text, clauses headed by yea if either (1) refer to an immediately preceding conditional if-clause or (2) are completed by a resultive main clause—or both:

• Mosiah 12:33
  • I know if ye keep the commandments of God / ye shall be saved yea if ye keep the commandments which the Lord delivered unto Moses in the mount of Sinai
• Mosiah 29:13
  • therefore if it were possible that ye could have just men to be your kings which would establish the laws of God and judge this people according to his commandments yea if ye could have men for your kings which would do even as my father Benjamin did for this people I say unto you : if this could always be the case then it would be expedient that ye should always have kings to rule over you
• Alma 12:13
  • then if our hearts have been hardened yea if we have hardened our hearts against the word insomuch that it hath not been found in us then will our state be awful
• Alma 22:16
  • if thou will bow down before God yea if thou repent of all thy sins and will bow down before God and call on his name in faith believing that ye shall receive then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest
• Alma 27:8
  • yea if the Lord saith unto us : go (2) we will go down unto our brethren
• Alma 60:16
  • yea if we had gone forth against them in the strength of the Lord (2) we should have dispersed our enemies
• Alma 60:27
  • and if there be any among you that hath a desire for freedom yea if there be even a spark of freedom remaining behold I will stir up insurrections among you
• Helaman 7:8
  • yea if my days could have been in them days (2) then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren
• Helaman 12:14
  • yea if he say unto the earth : thou shalt go back that it lengthen out the day for many hours (2) and it is done

But in no other place do we have a stranded yea if clause—that is, without any preceding if-clause or any following main clause. The critical text will therefore restore the original reading in Alma 11:22: “yea I will if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord which is in me”.