Alma 53:12 Textual Variants

The original manuscript is extant here for the last letter of ever, and that letter appears to be an r, not an n (thus “and they ever had been protected by the Nephites”). In other words, the people of Ammon had continually been protected by the Nephites. And this is the reading found two verses earlier in the text, one that is virtually identical in phraseology:

• Alma 53:10
  • they had been converted unto the Lord and they had been brought down into the land of Zarahemla and had ever since been protected by the Nephites

In verse 10, the word ever is fully extant.

When Oliver Cowdery copied the text in verse 12 from 𝓞 into 𝓟, he initially wrote even instead of ever. This secondary reading (“and they even had been protected by the Nephites”) is theoretically possible since no one would have expected the Nephites to have protected these Lamanites, their former enemies. In any event, Oliver caught his error in 𝓟 virtually immediately and overwrote the n with an r (there is no change in the level of ink flow). See the general discussion under Mosiah 2:15–16 concerning Oliver’s difficulty in distinguishing between n ’s and r ’s. For another example where ever was almost mixed up with even, see under Alma 19:27. Here in Alma 53:12, the critical text will follow the reading in 𝓞, ever.