Alma 30:13 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
O ye that are bound down under a foolish and [a 01ABCDEFGIJLMNOPQRST| HK] vain hope

Here the 1874 RLDS edition accidentally omitted the repeated indefinite article a from “a foolish and a vain hope”. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the repeated a to the RLDS text. The repetition is found in one other conjoining of foolish and vain: “to believe that the doctrine of Christ was a foolish and a vain thing” (3 Nephi 2:2). The critical text will maintain the repeated article here in Alma 30:13. For a complete discussion of such repetition, see under conjunctive repetition in volume 3.

Summary: Maintain the repeated a in Alma 30:13: “under a foolish and a vain hope”.

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

References