Helaman 10:8–9 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and thus if ye shall say unto this temple : it shall be rent in twain [& 1|and A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] it shall be done and if ye shall say unto this mountain : be thou cast down and become smooth [& 1|and A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] it shall be done

Here in the original text, we have two instances of the Hebraistic if-and construction. These unexpected and ’s were removed in the editing for the 1837 edition, but as explained under 1 Nephi 17:50 and Helaman 12:13–21, the critical text will restore these and ’s since they were definitely intended in the original text. For a complete listing of all instances of this literal Hebraism in the original text, see under hebraisms in volume 3.

It is worth noting here that not every sentence-initial if-clause has an and before its following main clause. For instance, in the subsequent verse in Helaman 10 we have a normal if-clause without any extra and before its following main clause:

For each possible case of the Hebraistic and, we follow the reading of the earliest textual sources, thus restoring the original and ’s in verses 8 and 9 but leaving verse 10 without any extra and.

Summary: Restore the two cases of the Hebraistic and in Helaman 10:8–9, where and separates a preceding if-clause from its following main clause.

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

References