Alma 33:23 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
I desire that ye [should 01A|shall BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] plant this word in your hearts

Here the 1837 edition replaced the subjunctive should with the indicative shall. This change appears to be a typo since elsewhere in the text, whenever we have a present-tense form of the verb desire followed by a that-clause as the direct object, we always get should rather than shall. There are 16 other cases of “X desires that Y should do something” but no others of the form “X desires that Y shall do something”. In Alma’s and Amulek’s discourses to the Zoramites, there are three other examples with should:

The critical text will therefore restore the subjunctive should here in Alma 33:23.

Summary: Restore the original should in Alma 33:23 since in all other places in the Book of Mormon text the verb desire, when used in the present tense, takes should over shall in any following that-clause acting as the direct object of desire.

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

References