Alma 12:17 Textual Variants

In preparing the printer’s manuscript for typesetting, the 1830 compositor, John Gilbert, supralinearly inserted in pencil the subject pronoun he before the dependent having-clause, probably because he did not want the reader to misinterpret the preceding pronoun they as the subject for having; obviously, the intended meaning is that Satan was the one subjecting those who had spiritually died. We have evidence that scribe 2 of 𝓟 occasionally omitted the subject pronoun he; for a list, see under Alma 11:2. So it is quite possible that Gilbert’s emendation represents the original text.

Although the he is helpful in Alma 12:17, the question is whether the he is necessary (if so, there must have been an early loss of the subject pronoun). There are examples elsewhere in the text of present-participial clauses that refer to nearby nonsubject words rather than to more distant subject noun phrases, as in the following examples:

• Mosiah 18:4 (no it before having)
  • as many as did believe him did go forth to a place which was called Mormon having received its name from the king
• Mosiah 25:21 (no they before being)
  • therefore they did assemble themselves together in different bodies being called churches
• Alma 15:5 (no he before being )
  • and they found him upon his bed sick being very low with a burning fever
• Alma 40:13 (no they before being)
  • there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and this because of their own iniquity being led captive by the will of the devil

The earliest text in Alma 12:17 is therefore possible. Consequently, the critical text will restore the earliest reading: “according to the power and captivity of Satan / having subjected them according to his will”.