Helaman 3:19 Textual Variants

The 1920 LDS edition resolved the disagreement between the singular was and the plural contentions by making the noun singular. But in the original text, there were numerous instances of “there was ”
(see the discussion under 1 Nephi 4:4). For such examples, the overriding tendency has been to emend the was to were, not change the plural noun to a singular one, as in the change to were for two other instances of the plural contentions (made by Joseph Smith in his editing for the 1837 edition):

• Alma 4:1
  • there [was >js were 1|was A|were BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] no contentions nor wars in the land of Zarahemla
• 4 Nephi 1:2
  • and there [was >js were 1|was A|were BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] no contentions and disputations among them

It should be noted that these two examples involve negation, unlike the case here in Helaman 3:19.

As we might expect, there are examples of “there was (a) contention” in the text. In fact, here in Helaman 3:19 it appears that the editors for the 1920 LDS edition were influenced by several references in their copytext to “there was no contention” and “there was much contention” at the beginning of this chapter:

• Helaman 3:1–3 (the 1920 copytext, but with yea emended to year in verse 3) and now it came to pass in the forty and third year of the reign of the judges there was no contention among the people of Nephi …
  and there was no contention among the people in the forty and fourth year neither was there much contention in the forty and fifth year and it came to pass in the forty and sixth year there was much contention and many dissensions

The 1911 LDS edition, the copytext for the 1920 edition, had four instances of the singular contention in Helaman 3:1–3, although in the earliest text the last one read in the plural: “there were much contentions and many dissensions” (see the nearby discussion under Helaman 3:3). For each case of “there was/were contention(s)”, the critical text will maintain the earliest reading, even if it violates the standard rules of subject-verb agreement.

The use of the adverb still here in Helaman 3:19 should also be noted: “there was still great contentions in the land”. Earlier in this passage, we have a specific reference to the great contentions that occurred in the previous year:

• Helaman 3:17
  • and now I return again to mine account therefore what I have spoken had passed after there had been great contentions and disturbances and wars and dissensions among the people of Nephi

Thus the use in verse 19 of the plural great contentions in “there was still great contentions in the land” is precisely correct.