Alma 13:8 Textual Variants

The 1874 RLDS edition accidentally replaced or with and. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the original or to the RLDS text. There are other instances of “without X or Y” in the text, and two of them are found in nearby verses:

• Alma 13:7 being without beginning of days or end of years
• Alma 13:9 which is without beginning of days or end of years
• Alma 32:16 without being brought to know the word or even compelled to know
• Mormon 5:18 without sail or anchor

There is one example in the text of “without X and Y”, namely in Mormon 5:16: “and they are without Christ and God in the world”. Of course, in this instance, the scope of negation includes both Christ and God; thus the and is appropriate in that passage. As we might expect, the Book of Mormon uses and to connect beginning and end when the conjunctive relationship is positive rather than negative:

• Alma 11:39 he is the beginning and the end
• 3 Nephi 9:18 I am Alpha and Omega / the beginning and the end

But there are no examples of “without beginning and end”. Given the negative preposition without, the conjunction or is undoubtedly the correct reading for Alma 13:8.