Alma 54:17 Textual Variants

The original manuscript reads “rightfully belonged unto them”. Oliver Cowdery accidentally replaced rightfully with rightly when he copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟. This change is in agreement with two instances of “rightly belong” in the original text (one of which occurs in the very next verse after Alma 54:17):

• Mosiah 29:6
  • now I declare unto you that he to whom the kingdom doth rightly belong hath declined and will not take upon him the kingdom
• Alma 54:18
  • and now behold if ye will lay down your arms and subject yourselves to be governed by those to whom the government doth rightly belong then will I cause that my people shall lay down their weapons

Here in Alma 54:17, the original text has a unique reading that has been eliminated from the subsequent text—although, to be fair, there are only two opposing instances of “rightly belong”. In fact, these three cases are the only instances of the words rightly and rightfully in the entire Book of Mormon text. Since rightfully is clearly the reading in 𝓞 and it does work, the critical text will restore it.

There is one additional textual variant here in Alma 54:17, namely, the replacement of the preposition unto with to in the 1953 RLDS edition, thus changing “belonged unto them” to “belonged to them”. In fact, the two instances of “doth rightly belong” (listed above) have the preposition to rather than unto: “to whom the kingdom doth rightly belong” (in Mosiah 29:6) and “to whom the government doth rightly belong” (in Alma 54:18). But more generally, the Book of Mormon text allows variation between the prepositions unto and to. See, for instance, the discussion regarding the phrase “to give heed (un)to X” in Alma 21:23. The critical text will retain the original preposition unto here in Alma 54:17.