Helaman 6:17 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
they had not been stirred up to anger to wars nor to [bloodsheds 1ABCDEFGHIJKNOPS|bloodshed LMQRT]

Here the 1902 and 1905 LDS missionary editions replaced the plural bloodsheds with the singular bloodshed; the 1905 change may have occurred independently of the 1902 change. The LDS text has continued with the singular bloodshed. In modern English, speakers expect the singular; but as explained under 2 Nephi 10:6, the original Book of Mormon text had a number of instances of the plural bloodsheds when conjoined with other plural nouns (such as here in Helaman 6:17 where bloodsheds is conjoined with wars). The critical text will restore the original plural in this passage.

Summary: Restore in Helaman 6:17 the original plural bloodsheds, the earliest extant reading.

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

References