Alma 48:17 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
yea the devil would never have [no 0A|NULL > no >js NULL 1| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] power over the hearts of the children of men

Here the original manuscript has a multiple negative, “the devil would never have no power”. In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith removed this multiple negative by deleting the no. The critical text will restore the original multiple negative here despite its nonstandard nature. For each instance of multiple negation, we consider the earliest textual sources. Some instances of multiple negation were introduced into the early text, but other instances are found in the original text. For discussion of that point, see under 2 Nephi 26:32; also see under negation in volume 3.

Summary: Restore the original multiple negative in Alma 48:17: “the devil would never have no power over the hearts of the children of men”.

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

References