Alma 14:5 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and the people went forth and witnessed against them testifying that they had reviled against the law and their lawyers and the judges of the land and also [ 1APS|of BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] all the people that were in the land

The 1837 edition added of before “all the people that were in the land”, but this addition obviously changes the meaning of the text. The original text says that Alma and Amulek were accused of reviling against all the people in the land, while the altered text says that the judges were the judges of the land and also the judges of all the people in the land—a truism that doesn’t provide any useful information.

In the book of Helaman, there are a couple of verses that support the idea that a prophet can “revile against the people”:

These attacks against Nephi in Helaman 8, like those against Alma and Amulek in Alma 14, are an intentional exaggeration. Nonetheless, in each case the claim is that these prophets were reviling against the people as a whole. In accord with the reading in 𝓟, the 1908 RLDS edition removed the extra of in Alma 14:5. The critical text will do the same.

Summary: Remove in Alma 14:5 the intrusive of that the 1837 edition incorrectly placed before “all the people that were in the land”.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 3

References