Alma 48:3 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
for he had hardened the hearts of the Lamanites and blinded their minds and stirred them up [to 01ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRST|in J] anger

The 1888 LDS large-print edition replaced the preposition to with in, giving “and stirred them up in anger”. The 1888 edition was never used as a copytext for any subsequent edition, so this reading with in was never transmitted. There is one other example where the preposition has been mixed up in this expression; in that instance, Oliver Cowdery momentarily wrote to in 𝓟 instead of the correct with:

This verse and the previous one contain the only instances in the text of “stir up … with anger”, although the one in verse 29 is not quite the same: “and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger one with another”. Elsewhere there are 24 occurrences of “stir up to anger” and 3 of “stir up in anger”. Since either to or in is possible in Alma 48:3, we follow the earliest reading: “and stirred them up to anger”.

Summary: Maintain in Alma 48:3 the original reading with the preposition to (“and stirred them up to anger”).

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

References