Alma 23:2 Textual Variants

Here in the original manuscript, Oliver Cowdery wrote Synagogue (thus “nor cast them out of their synagogue”). There is no evidence in the ultraviolet photographs of 𝓞 for any plural s being added later in weaker ink flow at the end of Synagogue. There is some noise in the photographs between the end of Synagogue and the following nor, but apparently no inserted s (either inline or supralinearly). When Oliver copied the word from 𝓞 into 𝓟, he supplied the plural s.

Usage elsewhere in the text strongly supports this emendation. First of all, the text otherwise uses the plural synagogues in general references to houses of worship, especially when referring to being cast out of synagogues (as here in Alma 23:2):

• Alma 32:2 for behold they were cast out of the synagogues
• Alma 32:5 for they have cast us out of our synagogues
• Alma 32:9 for we are cast out of our synagogues
• Alma 32:12 it is well that ye are cast out of your synagogues
• Alma 33:2 because ye are cast out of your synagogues
• 3 Nephi 18:32 nevertheless ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues or your places of worship

The last example also shows synagogues being conjoined with another plural noun phrase, “your places of worship”. We find the same here in Alma 23:2, which in the current text refers to having “free access to their houses and also their temples and their sanctuaries”. Elsewhere, the text has quite a few examples where synagogues collocates with other plural references to places where people can gather, usually places of worship:

• 2 Nephi 26:26
  • behold hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues or out of the houses of worship
• Alma 16:13
  • and Alma and Amulek went forth preaching repentance unto the people in their temples and in their sanctuaries and also in their synagogues which was built after the manner of the Jews
• Alma 26:29
  • and we have entered into their houses and taught them and we have taught them in their streets yea and we have taught them upon their hills and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them and we have been cast out
• Alma 32:1
  • they did go forth and began to preach the word of God unto the people entering into their synagogues and into their houses yea and even they did preach the word in their streets
• Helaman 3:9
  • and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land that it should grow up that in time they might have timber to build their houses yea their cities and their temples and their synagogues and their sanctuaries and all manner of their buildings
• Helaman 3:14
  • yea the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites … and their building of temples and of synagogues and their sanctuaries
• 3 Nephi 13:2 (Matthew 6:2, King James Bible)
  • therefore when ye shall do your alms do not sound a trumpet before you as will hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men
• 3 Nephi 13:5 (Matthew 6:5, King James Bible)
  • and when thou prayest thou shalt not do as the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men

In one instance, the form is singular but the semantics is plural:

• Alma 21:16
  • preaching the word of God in every synagogue of the Amlicites or in every assembly of the Lamanites where they could be admitted

The only other time we get the singular synagogue is when there is a specific reference to a particular synagogue:

• Alma 21:11 he departed out of the synagogue
• Alma 31:13 for they had a place built up in the center of their synagogue
• Moroni 7:1 as he taught them in the synagogue which they had built

In all remaining instances, all general, we get only the plural:

• Alma 21:4 and he began to preach to them in their synagogues
• Alma 21:4 for they had built synagogues after the order of the Nehors
• Alma 21:5 as Aaron entered into one of their synagogues
• Alma 21:20 that there should be synagogues built in the land of Ishmael
• Alma 31:12 they found that the Zoramites had built synagogues
• Alma 32:3 therefore they were not permitted to enter into their synagogues
• Alma 32:10 save it be in your synagogues only

The last of these general examples is especially interesting since there Oliver initially wrote this plural as a singular in 𝓞:

• Alma 32:10
  • do ye suppose that ye cannot worship God save it be in your [Synagogue > Synagogues 0|Synagogues 1| synagogues ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] only

Thus all the other textual evidence supports Oliver Cowdery’s emendation in Alma 23:2 to the plural synagogues, made when he copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟. Oliver may have written the singular Synagogue in 𝓞 because of the preceding occurrence of the singular prison in “or to cast them into prison”; note that both this clause and the following one, “nor cast them out of their synagogue(s)”, use the verb cast, thus facilitating the mistake in 𝓞 of writing Synagogue instead of the correct Synagogues.