In part 5, I discussed the question of whether this expression originally had the verb form be or not. For this part of the text, the 1830 edition was set from 𝓞, so the question becomes whether the reading in 𝓟 (with the be) or the 1830 reading (without the be) is correct. As noted there in part 5, the original reading in 2 Nephi 1:6 (“there shall be none come into this land”) supports the occurrence of the be here in Helaman 14:5.
In both of these cases, we naturally interpret the expression to be of the form “there shall be ”. Brent Kerby, on the other hand, has suggested (personal communication, 10 August 2008) that the original reading in 2 Nephi 1:6 can be interpreted as being of the form “there shall be ” since the form come can stand for either the infinitive form or the past-participial form. Applying that interpretation here in Helaman 14:5, we should have “and behold there shall be a new star arisen”. Kerby then wonders if the arise in Helaman 14:5 might be an error for arisen. In this case, the word-final n would have been accidentally omitted in 𝓞 (as Joseph Smith dictated the text to Oliver Cowdery) since both 𝓟 and the 1830 edition are firsthand copies of 𝓞 for this part of the text and they both read arise, not arisen (𝓞 is not extant here).
We can find evidence for this kind of existential construction elsewhere in the text, that is, sentences of the form “there shall be ”:
Note, however, that for each of these five cases the past-participial form is a transitive verb and is used in the passive. This is not the case in 2 Nephi 1:6 and Helaman 14:5. The verbs come and arise are intransitive and should not take the passive. Moreover, there is no evidence in the textual history of a final past-participial n being omitted unless the resulting form is a simple past-tense form (as, for instance, in 1 Nephi 17:20 where Oliver Cowdery initially wrote have bore for have borne in 𝓞). In other words, there is very little chance that arise is an error for arisen here in Helaman 14:5. The critical text will therefore maintain the earliest reading, “there shall be a new star arise”; it appears that this reading was the reading in 𝓞, no longer extant. Correspondingly, in 2 Nephi 1:6 (“there shall be none come into this land”) the verb form come is the infinitive form, not the past-participial form.
Summary: Maintain the infinitive verb form arise in “there shall be a new star arise”, the reading of the earliest textual sources; this reading is supported by the reading in 2 Nephi 1:6 (“there shall be none come into this land”)
Helaman 14:20, page 3124, line –13
The lack of daylight occurred at the time of Christ’s death, not at the time of his birth. Here the word birth should be replaced with death.