Alma 32:3–4 Textual Variants

therefore they were poor yea they were esteemed by their brethren as dross therefore they were poor as to [ 01ABCDEFGIJLMNOPQRST|the HK] things of the world and also they were poor in heart now as Alma was teaching and speaking unto the people upon the hill Onidah there came a great multitude unto him which were those of which we have been speaking which were poor in heart because of their poverty as to [ 01|the ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] things of the world

In both these verses, the original text read “as to things of the world”. The tendency in the transmission of this phraseology has been to add the definite article the before “things of the world”. In verse 3, the 1874 RLDS edition added the the, but it was removed from the RLDS text in 1908. In verse 4, the 1830 typesetter added the the, which has never been removed from either the LDS or RLDS text. This tendency to add the the is natural given the occurrence elsewhere in the text of the in all other references to things of the world (15 in all):

“the things of the world” 2 times
“the vain things of the world” 9 times
“the vain things of the world” 1 time
“the things of this world” 1 time
“the vain things of this world” 2 times

More generally, in phrases beginning with as to, the definite article the is lacking before things, although there are a couple cases with the the, each indicated below with an asterisk (including one of the instances of “the things of the world”):

*1 Nephi 15:33 as to the things which are spiritual
*2 Nephi 9:30 as to the things of the world
Alma 5:42 as to things pertaining unto righteousness
Alma 12:16 as to things pertaining unto righteousness
Alma 12:31 as to things which were temporal
Alma 12:32 as to things pertaining unto righteousness
Alma 40:26 as to things pertaining to things of righteousness
Helaman 11:19 as to things pertaining to righteousness
Helaman 14:16 both as to things temporal and to things spiritual
Helaman 14:18 as to things pertaining to righteousness

Thus the occurrence twice in Alma 32:3–4 of “as to things of the world” is quite possible.

Summary: Remove in Alma 32:4 the definite article the before “things of the world”; in the original text, both instances of “as to things of the world” in Alma 32:3–4 read without any the before things.

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

References