Alma 42:16–17 Textual Variants

Originally the 1830 compositor, when supplying the punctuation in the printer’s manuscript, decided that should be needed to be considered part of the following predicate (“should be affixed opposite to the plan of happiness”), not at the end of the preceding clause (“which also was as eternal as the life of the soul should be”). The compositor marked his decision by placing in pencil a semicolon before should be in 𝓟. But when he finally ended up actually setting the type for this passage, he did not put any punctuation before should be. Instead, he placed a comma after the should be, thus indicating his final decision that should be belonged to the preceding clause. All of the printed editions of the Book of Mormon have followed this textual decision.

At the end of the verse, the same clause (except for the position of the also) is repeated—and without the should be: “which was as eternal also as the life of the soul”. This ending to verse 16 definitely suggests that the should be belongs with “affixed opposite to the plan of happiness”. Moreover, the reading “as eternal as the life of the soul should be”, earlier in the verse, doesn’t really make any sense: why would the text say that the life of the soul should be eternal when it is eternal? In other words, there should be semantic agreement for the two instances of “which was as eternal as the life of the soul” (ignoring the also).

The problem, of course, with putting should be with the following clause is that the resulting construction seems ungrammatical: “except there were a punishment … should be affixed opposite to the plan of happiness”. Several possible emendations suggest themselves:

• adding the subordinate conjunction that :
  • “except there were a punishment … that should be affixed”
• omitting the existential there were:
  • “except a punishment … should be affixed”
• omitting the finite verb phrase should be:
  • “except there were a punishment … affixed”

Yet actually the Book of Mormon text has other examples like the original text here in Alma 42:16. In the following two examples, there is a modal verb (just like should in Alma 42:16); and although there is a different negative connector (save it were or short of ), it functions just like except there were:

• 1 Nephi 18:20
  • and there was nothing save it were the power of God which threatened them with destruction could soften their hearts
• Enos 1:23
  • I say there was nothing short of these things and exceeding great plainness of speech would keep them from going down speedily to destruction

The critical text will therefore maintain the similar construction here in the book of Alma:

• Alma 42:16
  • except there were a punishment which also was as eternal as the life of the soul should be affixed opposite to the plan of happiness which was as eternal also as the life of the soul