Alma 29:5 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
but he that knoweth good and evil to him [it 01ABCDEFGHIJLMNOPQRST| K] is given according to his desires

The 1892 RLDS edition omitted the expletive it here. Although an accident, the resulting reading is not impossible. Elsewhere in the text there are examples of “to X is given”, although in each of these cases there is an explicit subject following is given:

(In the last case, the that-clause appears to serve as the postponed subject for is given.) The major problem with the 1892 reading for Alma 29:5 is that there is no explicit subject following is given. Obviously, the original reading with the it will be maintained here in Alma 29:5.

Summary: Maintain the expletive it in Alma 29:5: “to him it is given according to his desires”.

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

References