Alma 57:2 Textual Variants

The original manuscript has the subordinate conjunction that after the word sure. While copying to the printer’s manuscript, Oliver Cowdery accidentally omitted the that. There is only one other example in the text of sure followed by a finite clause, and that example has the subordinate conjunction that:

• Alma 32:31 (𝓞 is extant)
  • and now behold are ye sure that this is a good seed

This example provides support for the reading of 𝓞 in Alma 57:2.

On the face of it, there is some redundancy in this passage when it refers to “our forces were sufficient to take the city Antiparah by our force”. The repeated reference to force(s) is, it would appear, intended, especially since it is extant in 𝓞. Initially in 𝓞, Oliver Cowdery wrote “by our forces” (that is, in the plural), precisely like the use of our forces at the beginning of the that-clause. Oliver’s correction to the singular shows that Joseph Smith actually dictated the singular force, that Oliver didn’t just accidentally repeat an earlier reference to forces. David Calabro also points out (personal communication) that the repeated reference sounds less redundant if we interpret the second instance, force, as an abstract noun meaning ‘strength’, in contrast to the earlier forces with its meaning ‘troops’. Nonetheless, for most instances in the text, singular force refers to troops and is virtually interchangeable with the plural forces, as in the following pair of examples:

• Alma 53:5 and he desired all his forces when he should make an attack upon the Lamanites
• Alma 59:10 therefore he retained all his force to maintain those places which he had recovered

Don Brugger points out (personal communication) that there’s another possibility here. Perhaps the clause-final phrase “by our force” is a mistake for “by force”. In other words, the earlier “our forces” led Oliver to not only initially write the plural forces in 𝓞 but also the determiner our. When he corrected the by-phrase by erasing the plural s for forces, Oliver may have neglected to cross out the our. A common enough phrase, “by force” occurs six times in the King James Bible, with five occurring with the verb take (just like here in Alma 57:2):

• Genesis 31:31 peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me
• 1 Samuel 2:16 and if not / I will take it by force
• Matthew 11:12 the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force
• John 6:15 that they would come and take him by force
• Acts 23:10 and to take him by force from among them

On the other hand, there is no independent evidence in the Book of Mormon for either phrase, “by one’s force(s)” or “by force”. Since the immediately corrected reading in 𝓞, “by our force”, will work, the critical text will maintain it, even though the our may be an error.