Alma 11:44 Textual Variants

Ross Geddes (personal communication, 6 April 2006) suggests that this passage may contain an error. The extant text (based on the reading in 𝓟) reads “and shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”, which sounds a little odd since one wouldn’t think that “and [all things] shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”. (For the form raigned rather than arraigned, see the following discussion.) Geddes suggests that the original text read “and all shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”. 𝓞 is not extant for this particular portion of the text. The transcript of 𝓞, in volume 1 of the critical text, assumes that 𝓞 read as in 𝓟, without any all at the end of line 15:

• Alma 11:44 (lines 14–17 on page 228ªof 𝓞)

( b)e lost but all things s(hal )

SO MUCH AS A HAIR OF THEIR HEADS L

or

( e) as it is now ^in the boddy (&) BE RESTORED TO ITS PERFECT FRAM

( d) before the bar of Christ th( )

SHALL BE BROUGHT & BE REIGNE E

( H)oly spirit which is [ ] ete(r ) SON & GOD THE FATHER & THE ONE NAL

But the spacing between extant fragments suggests that line 16 could have ended “in the boddy & all”, although the fit would have been tight:

• Alma 11:44 (possible revision for line 15 on page 228ªof 𝓞)

or

( e) as it is now ^in the boddy (& ) BE RESTORED TO ITS PERFECT FRAM ALL

Now if all was originally there at the end of the line, it could have easily been skipped when copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟, especially since the following line of 𝓟 would have begun with shall, which ends in all. In addition, we know that Oliver tended to omit short words at the end of the line in 𝓞 as he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟 (for a list of established examples, see under Alma 11:21).

Evidence elsewhere in the text strongly supports the use of all when referring to the resurrection and the day of judgment; in fact, the passages that agree most closely with the language in Alma 11:44 read all shall, just as in the proposed emendation here:

• Alma 11:41
  • for behold the day cometh that all shall rise from the dead and shall stand before God and be judged according to his works
• Alma 11:42
  • and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death that all shall be raised from this temporal death
• Alma 12:8
  • what does this mean which Amulek hath spoken concerning the resurrection of the dead that all shall rise from the dead both the just and the unjust and are brought to stand before God to be judged according to their works
• Alma 40:4
  • behold there is a time appointed that all shall come forth from the dead
• Alma 40:5
  • and it sufficeth me to know that this is the case that there is a time appointed when all shall rise from the dead
• Alma 40:10
  • and when the time cometh when all shall rise then shall they know that God knoweth all the times which are appointed unto man
• Mormon 9:13
  • and all shall stand before his bar being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death which death is a temporal death

Thus internal evidence supports emending the text here in Alma 11:44 to read “and all shall be brought and be (ar)raigned before the bar of Christ”.