Helaman 8:22 Textual Variants

yea they have testified of the coming of Christ and have looked forward and have rejoiced in [his 1ABCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|this D] day which is to come

The 1841 British edition replaced his with this, undoubtedly a typo rather than the result of editing. The subsequent LDS edition (1849) restored the correct “in his day”. The 1841 typesetter was prone to mix up his and this; we have three other examples of this kind of typo in that edition (all three of the others incorrectly replace this with his):

Mosiah 1:10
- for on the morrow I shall proclaim unto this my people out of mine own mouth that thou art a king and a ruler over [this 1ABCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|his D] people
Alma 30:10
- yea for all [these > this 0|this 1ABCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|his D] wickedness they were punished
Mormon 3:15
- and because [this 1ABCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|his D] people repented not after that I had delivered them behold they shall be cut off from the face of the earth

The phrase “in his day” is definitely correct here in Helaman 8:22. For further discussion of this phrase, especially the use of the singular day instead of the plural days, see nearby under Helaman 8:16. Interestingly, the original text has no instances of the phrase “in this day”.

Summary: Maintain the determiner his in Helaman 8:22: “and have rejoiced in his day which is to come”.

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

References