Helaman 5:2 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
for as their laws and their [ goverment > goverments 1|governments ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] were established by the voice of the people …

Oliver Cowdery typically wrote the word government according to pronunciation, as goverment. In most instances, the text reads in the singular for this word, but in two cases the earliest textual sources read in the plural, here in Helaman 5:2 and also originally in Alma 43:17. As explained under that passage, this plural usage appears to be intended and will be maintained in the critical text. Here in Helaman 5:2, Oliver inserted inline the plural s virtually immediately (there is no difference in the level of ink flow for the inserted s ); the plural reading was very likely the reading in 𝓞.

Summary: Maintain the plural governments in Helaman 5:2, the reading in 𝓟 (and most probably the reading in 𝓞).

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 5

References