Alma 57:13 Textual Variants

In the original manuscript, Oliver Cowdery started to write to after the conjunction or, but then he erased the partially written to and wrote down put, with his p overwriting the erased to. Quite clearly, Oliver expected a repetition of the infinitival to, but the original text lacked it. Nonetheless, when he copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟, he once more inserted the repeated to. This time he didn’t catch his error, with the result that the printed editions all read “to keep them or to put them to death”.

Usually the text has the repeated to with conjunctive infinitives involving or (consistently in 16 different passages), as in Alma 52:36: “and the remainder of them being much confused knew not whither to go or to strike”. However, there are other cases where the infinitival to is not repeated; in all three of the following instances, the text without the repeated to is supported by 𝓞:

• Alma 11:2
  • and thus the man is compelled to pay that which he oweth or be striped or be cast out from among the people as a thief and a robber
• Alma 41:7
  • for behold they are their own judges whether to do good or do evil
• Alma 56:17
  • and now they were determined to conquer in this place or die

There is also one case of mixture, in Moroni 6:9, where the to is repeated but only for some of the infinitive conjuncts; for discussion, see under that passage. Also see the more general discussion under conjunctive repetition in volume 3.