Alma 22:29 Textual Variants

nevertheless the Nephites had taken possession of all the northern parts of the land bordering on the wilderness at the head of the river Sidon from the east to the west round about on the wilderness [sides 1|side ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] on the north

The printer’s manuscript has the plural sides in the phrase “the wilderness sides on the north”. The 1830 compositor set this in the singular since this is what we expect: geographically there should only be one side on the north. Elsewhere in the text there are three other occurrences of “the wilderness side” but none with the plural sides:

Alma 8:5 all the borders of the land which was by the wilderness side
Alma 16:2 the armies of the Lamanites had come in on the wilderness side
Alma 58:13 and we did pitch our tents by the wilderness side

The original manuscript is not extant here in Alma 22:29 but may have read in the singular, which would mean that Oliver Cowdery added a plural s to side as he copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟. There is considerable evidence that Oliver frequently added and deleted plural s ’s while copying. See, for instance, the cases of border(s) and shore(s) discussed under 1 Nephi 2:5. In fact, we have one case in 𝓞 where Oliver initially wrote the plural sides instead of the correct side, and in that instance he immediately corrected his error by erasing the plural s:

Alma 43:41
- Moroni and his army met the army of the Lamanites in the valley on the other [sides >% side 0|side 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of the river Sidon

In all probability, the original text read “on the wilderness side” in Alma 22:29.

Summary: Accept in Alma 22:29 the 1830 compositor’s emendation of the text from the plural sides to the singular side in “on the wilderness side on the north”.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 4

References