Alma 58:26 Textual Variants

As discussed under verse 14, the original text allows the repetition of the subordinate conjunction that in complex sentences. Here in the original text for verse 26, we have a repeated that for the when-clause immediately following the initial “it came to pass” clause (“now it came to pass that when it was night that I caused …”). The 1920 LDS text removed the repeated that, but the critical text will restore it.

The editing out of repeated that ’s is quite uneven in the history of the text. Elsewhere in the original text, we have the following cases of the repeated that for a when- clause immediately following “it came to pass that”, and in only two cases has the repeated that been removed, both in the editing for the 1837 edition (each of these is marked below with an asterisk):

• Mosiah 4:1
  • and now it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel of the Lord that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude
• Mosiah 7:18
  • and it came to pass that when they had gathered themselves together that he spake unto them in this wise saying …
• Mosiah 17:1
  • and now it came to pass that when Abinadi had finished these sayings that the king commanded that the priests should take him
• Mosiah 20:9
  • and it came to pass that when the Lamanites had come up that the people of Limhi began to fall upon them from their waiting places
• Alma 2:35
  • and it came to pass that when they had all crossed the river Sidon that the Lamanites and the Amlicites began to flee before them
• * Alma 15:11 (“it came to pass that” also removed in the 1837 editing)
  • and it came to pass that when Alma had said these words that Zeezrom leaped upon his feet and began to walk
• Alma 20:1
  • and it came to pass that when they had established a church in that land that king Lamoni desired that Ammon should go with him to the land of Nephi
• Alma 23:4
  • and now it came to pass that when the king had sent forth this proclamation that Aaron and his brethren went forth from city to city
• * Alma 30:30
  • and it came to pass that when he was brought before Alma and the chief judge that he did go on in the same manner as he did in the land of Gideon
• Alma 31:36
• now it came to pass that
• when Alma had said these words that he clapped his hands upon all they which were with him
• Alma 47:13
  • and it came to pass that when Lehonti had come down with his guards to Amalickiah that Amalickiah desired him to come down with his army in the nighttime

One reason the 1920 editors may have noticed the repeated that in Alma 58:26 is that there the when-clause is quite short (“when it was night”). When the when-clause is longer, as in the examples that escaped the 1837 editing, it is harder to notice the repeated that. In any event, the repeated that is very common in spoken English as well as in unedited writing (and even edited writing, as these examples show). For further discussion regarding the repeated that, see under that in volume 3.

Also here in Alma 58:26, Oliver Cowdery initially omitted in 𝓟 the subordinate conjunction that which comes after the past-tense verb form caused. Virtually immediately he supralinearly inserted the that (there is no change in the level of ink flow). 𝓞 is not extant here, but there is clearly room for it in the lacuna. Elsewhere in the text, a finite clause complementing the verb cause always takes the subordinate that (see the discussion under 1 Nephi 17:46). Here in Alma 58:26, there is a conjoined finite clause that follows the first one, and it too is headed by that: “but that they should march forward by another way towards the land of Manti”.