Alma 62:6 Textual Variants

The original manuscript is not extant here. In the printer’s manuscript, Oliver Cowdery inserted stronger supralinearly and without any change in the level of ink flow. His correction most probably reflects the reading of the original manuscript. Without the comparative stronger, the ellipted text definitely seems to be defective. Elsewhere, we get a comparative word between even and than when there is some difference with respect to the preceding text:

• Mosiah 3:7
  • and lo he shall suffer temptations and pain of body hunger thirst and fatigue even more than man can suffer except it be unto death
• Mosiah 4:2
  • and they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state even less than the dust of the earth
• 3 Nephi 26:14
  • and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things even greater than he had revealed unto the people

Note that in the last example the preceding text has the base form of the adjective (namely, great); thus the form greater is required in comparison. Similarly, here in Alma 62:6, the comparison is between the base adjective strong and the comparative stronger. On the other hand, if the preceding text already has the comparative form, then ellipsis of that form can occur:

• 1 Nephi 4:1
  • for behold he is mightier than all the earth then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty yea or even than his tens of thousands

In other words, “yea or even mightier than his tens of thousands” allows for ellipsis of the word mightier since the preceding text already has the comparative form mightier.