Alma 46:22 Textual Variants

The 1830 edition replaced the modal should with shall, probably under the influence of the nearly parallel phraseology earlier in this verse:

• Alma 46:22
• we covenant with our God that we shall be destroyed even as our brethren in the land northward if we shall fall into transgression

However, earlier in this passage (in the immediately preceding verse), we find should used with the phrase “fall into transgression”:

• Alma 46:21
  • if they should transgress the commandments of God or fall into transgression and be ashamed to take upon them the name of Christ the Lord should rend them even as they had rent their garments

Note here that the occurrence of should (the first should in verse 21) extends to the following conjoined predicate (“if they should … fall into transgression”). In other words, we have more than one example in the original text of “ should fall into transgression” within the larger passage.

It is worth noting here that this 1830 error was not caught when the 1830 sheet (the 22nd signature) was proofed against 𝓞 (as discussed under Alma 42:31). For another instance where the 1830 typesetter replaced should with shall, see under 2 Nephi 25:19; for other cases where shall and should have been mixed up in the history of the text, see under modals in volume 3.