Alma 38:10 Textual Variants

The original text here has a parallel use of “would … should”:

even so I would that ye should continue to teach
and I would that ye should be diligent

Here the original manuscript is extant for the sh of the second should, thus showing that in 𝓞 the text read “and I would that ye should be diligent”. When Oliver Cowdery copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟, he replaced this should with would, an error that has been perpetuated in every printed edition. The critical text will restore the second should here in Alma 38:10. For further discussion of the expression “X would that S”, where S is a finite clause, see under Alma 34:30–31; the most common modal in the finite clause is should, which originally occurred twice here in Alma 38:10.