Alma 12:5 Textual Variants

It seems quite possible that the expression “thine adversary” here in Alma 12:5 is an error for “the adversary”. Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon, the noun adversary refers either to a human adversary or to Satan. Most instances of the word refer to human adversaries and are found in biblical quotes:

• 2 Nephi 7:8 (Isaiah 50:8)
  • who is mine adversary
• 2 Nephi 19:11 (Isaiah 9:11)
  • therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him
• 2 Nephi 21:13 (Isaiah 11:13)
  • and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off
• 3 Nephi 12:25 (Matthew 5:25)
  • agree with thine adversary quickly
• 3 Nephi 20:17 (Micah 5:9)
  • thy hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries
• 3 Nephi 21:13 (based on Micah 5:9)
  • their hand shall be lifted up upon their adversaries

There is one nonbiblical instance of adversary in the Book of Mormon that refers to people, and this is in the plural:

• Alma 1:22
  • nevertheless there were many among them who began to be proud and began to contend warmly with their adversaries even unto blows

Otherwise in the Book of Mormon, adversary is used to refer to Satan (three times). Here in Alma 12:5 we have “thine adversary” in all the extant textual sources, but the two other instances read “the adversary”:

• 1 Nephi 15:24
  • neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness
• Alma 12:6
  • and behold I say unto you all that this was a snare of the adversary which he hath laid to catch this people

In fact, the last example is found in the very next verse after Alma 12:5, which suggests that “thine adversary” in verse 5 may be an error for “the adversary”. The familiarity of the language from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:25 (“agree with thine adversary quickly”, quoted in 3 Nephi 12:25), could have led the scribe to write thine rather than the in Alma 12:5. An even more powerful influence leading to “thine adversary” would have been the many instances of the second person singular in the immediately preceding text here in Alma 12:

• Alma 12:3–5 (possible textual change marked with an arrow)
  •   now Zeezrom seeing that thou hast been taken in thy lyings and craftiness
      for thou hast not lied unto men only but thou hast lied unto God
      for behold he knows all thy thoughts
      and thou seest that thy thoughts are made known unto us by his Spirit
      and thou seest that we know that thy plan was a very subtle plan
      as to the subtlety of the devil for to lie and to deceive this people
      that thou mightest set them against us to revile us and to cast us out
    → now this was a plan of the > thine adversary
      and he hath exercised his power in thee

Unfortunately, 𝓞 is no longer extant in Alma 12:5, so the emended reading “the adversary” can only be conjectured. Of course, such an error as thine for the could have entered the text as Oliver Cowdery took down Joseph Smith’s dictation for this passage. Elsewhere in the history of the text, there is one manuscript example where the was replaced with thy. In that instance, Oliver miscopied the as thy under the influence of the second person singular forms in the immediately preceding text:

• 1 Nephi 20:8 (Isaiah 48:8)
  • yea and thou heardest not yea thou knewest not yea from that time thine ear was not opened for I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously and wast called a transgressor from [the 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|thy >js the 1] womb

(See under 1 Nephi 20:8 for further discussion of this particular error.) So in Alma 12:5, if the was mistaken as thy, the thy would have been converted to thine, given that the following word adversary began with a vowel. It turns out, however, that there are no explicit instances in the transmission of the text of the being replaced by thine.

In the King James Bible, the noun adversary almost always refers to human adversaries, but there is one clear instance where adversary refers to Satan, and in this case the determiner is the second person plural your:

• Peter 5:8
  • be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour

Thus the use of “thine adversary” is possible in Alma 12:5. Consequently, the critical text will maintain the reading “thine adversary”, although there is a good chance that this reading is an error for “the adversary”.