Helaman 2:1 Textual Variants

Here Joseph Smith removed the definite article the since in English we expect the phraseology “to establish peace between X and Y”—that is, without the definite article the. If peace is postmodified by an of-prepositional phrase, we typically get the before peace in the Book of Mormon text:

• Mosiah 29:10 and do that which will make for the peace of this people
• Alma 7:27 and now may the peace of God rest upon you
• 3 Nephi 6:3 unto those robbers which had entered into a covenant to keep the peace of the land
• 3 Nephi 9:9 for it was they that did destroy the peace of my people
• 3 Nephi 22:13 and great shall be the peace of thy children

Moreover, there are three occurrences of “to keep the peace” without any postmodification, and in each case the definite article the has been retained:

• Alma 46:31 and entered into a covenant to keep the peace
• Alma 50:36 and upon their covenanting to keep the peace
• Alma 50:39 and to keep the peace

Of course, the verb here is keep rather than establish, and we expect the the in that case.

There is no other example in the text quite like this one in Helaman 2:1. Here Joseph Smith’s editing seems to deal with a question of style rather than grammar. The critical text will restore the original the.