Alma 37:2 Textual Variants

and I also command you that ye [shall 0A|shall >js NULL 1| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] keep a record of this people according as I have done upon the plates of Nephi and keep all these things sacred which I have kept

In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith eliminated the modal verb shall near the beginning of Alma 37:2, perhaps because the preceding verse is very similar but does not have any modal:

Alma 37:1
- and now my son Helaman I command you that ye take the records which have been entrusted with me

Thus the change in verse 2 makes the beginning of the chapter read more consistently. Nonetheless, shall is clearly possible and is found in this context elsewhere in the text:

2 Nephi 26:24 he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation
2 Nephi 26:29 he commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts
Helaman 10:11 I command you that ye shall go and declare unto this people …
3 Nephi 16:4 and I command you that ye shall write these sayings
Ether 8:23 the Lord commandeth you … that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation

The critical text will therefore restore the occurrence of shall here in Alma 37:2.

Summary: Restore in Alma 37:2 the original shall in “I also command you that ye shall keep a record of this people”, despite the fact that the preceding verse lacks the shall (“I command you that ye take the records”); either usage occurs elsewhere in the text.

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

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