Alma 38:11 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
yea see that ye do not boast in your [NULL >– own 0|own 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] wisdom nor of your much strength

Here in the original manuscript, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote “in your wisdom”, but then somewhat later, with weaker ink flow, he supralinearly inserted own. It is difficult to read the own, but the insert mark is clearly visible. The printer’s manuscript has the own, as do all the printed editions. As explained under Alma 5:14, Oliver sometimes added an intrusive own in the manuscripts, but only when there was a nearby own that prompted the intrusive one. Here in Alma 38:11 there is no nearby own, which argues that the inserted own was in the original text.

Elsewhere the original text has nine instances of “in one’s (own) wisdom”, of which two have the own:

The occurrence of own is even more prevalent in the expression “boast in one’s (own) ”:

But own can also be missing when the verb is boast:

Thus either reading, with or without the own, is possible. Here in Alma 38:11, the corrected reading in 𝓞 (“in my own wisdom”) appears to be the original reading.

Summary: Accept in Alma 38:11 Oliver Cowdery’s apparent correction in 𝓞, “in my own wisdom”, which is also the reading in 𝓟 as well as in all the printed editions.

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

References