Alma 53:1 Textual Variants

The original manuscript has the archaic whilst. (Oliver Cowdery originally wrote whilst with an extra s at the end of the word, but he immediately corrected his error by erasing this s.) While copying the text into the printer’s manuscript, Oliver accidentally replaced whilst with the expected while. Elsewhere the Book of Mormon text still retains three examples of original whilst:

• Alma 31:17
  • and thou hast elected us that we shall be saved whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell
• Alma 50:22
  • and those who were faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord were delivered at all times whilst thousands of their wicked brethren have been consigned to bondage …
• Moroni 9:6
  • for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay

Of course, while is much more frequent in the text (with 81 occurrences of this subordinate conjunction in the original text). The critical text will restore the original instance of whilst here in Alma 53:1.

Interestingly, there is one case in 𝓟 where Oliver Cowdery initially wrote whilst (spelled as whilest), but in that case he immediately corrected the word to while by erasing the extra st from the end of the word:

• Helaman 14:27
  • and he said unto me that [whilest >% while 1|while ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] the thunder and the lightning lasted …