Alma 46:25 Textual Variants

The text of the original manuscript reads as a sentence fragment: “because that part of his seed which shall be taken unto God”. The editors for the 1920 LDS edition resolved this difficulty by inserting an of after because, thereby deciding that the rest of the construction (“that part of his seed which shall be taken unto God”) was a noun phrase. For this emendation, the that acts as the determiner for the noun part.

In support of this conjecture, there is evidence in the manuscripts that Oliver Cowdery sometimes omitted the of after because (although only momentarily):

• Alma 33:11 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • and thou didst hear me because [of 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|NULL > of 1] mine afflictions and my sincerity
• Alma 53:9 (initial error in 𝓞)
  • and thus because of iniquity amongst themselves yea because [NULL > of 0|of 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] dissensions and intrigue among themselves they were placed in the most dangerous circumstances
• Helaman 12:2 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • and this because [NULL > of 1|of ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] their ease and their exceeding great prosperity

There is considerable independent evidence for the construction “that part of ” followed by a relative clause (usually headed by which):

• Jacob 5:40 that part of the tree which brought forth good fruit
• Alma 2:37 that part of the wilderness which was infested by wild and ravenous beasts
• Alma 23:14 in that part of the land whithersoever they dwelt
• Alma 47:3 of that part of his army which was obedient unto his commands
• Alma 59:3 that part of the land which he had been so miraculously prospered in retaining
• Helaman 1:7 that part of the people that were desirous that he should be their governor
• Moroni 9:16 that part of the provisions which the Lamanites did not carry away

Moreover, we have examples of “ because of that ” followed by a relative clause:

• 1 Nephi 15:35 because of that justice of which I have spoken
• Helaman 7:25 because of that great abomination which hath come among you
• Helaman 7:26 because of that pride which ye have suffered to enter your hearts
• Ether 11:15 because of that secret combination which was built up to get power and gain

Another possibility for the sentence fragment here in the earliest text for Alma 46:25 would be to remove the relative pronoun which, giving “because that part of his seed shall be taken unto God”. In this reading, the that could be interpreted as either a subordinate conjunction or as a determiner. In the original text of the Book of Mormon (as also in the King James Bible), because that followed by a finite clause was very common. For the most part, Joseph Smith removed these instances of that after because in his editing for the 1837 edition (see the discussion under 1 Nephi 1:14 and more generally under subordinate conjunctions in volume 3).

As far as the original manuscript is concerned, it is much more likely that Oliver Cowdery accidentally omitted the of instead of accidentally inserting the which. There are a couple dozen cases where Oliver omitted the of in the manuscripts, sometimes momentarily; see, for instance, the three examples listed above where Oliver momentarily dropped the of after because. In contrast, there is at most only one example in the entire text where Oliver, depending on the analysis, may have inserted a which, namely, in 4 Nephi 1:14 (where the earliest extant text reads as a sentence fragment: “and also many of that generation which had passed away”). Yet even in that case, the larger context suggests that the which is intended (see the discussion under 4 Nephi 1:14).

Thus the most reasonable conclusion is that the 1920 LDS emendation that supplied the of is probably the original text for Alma 46:25. The critical text will accept this emendation. For an interesting case where Joseph Smith, in his editing for the 1837 edition, replaced an instance of “because of ” with a because- clause, see under Ether 1:43 (there he deleted the of and the relative pronoun which).