Mormon 8:9 Textual Variants

Here the 1837 edition added the before Lamanites. This change may have been accidental. Elsewhere in the text we have one other occurrence that supports the 1837 reading: “and there is none save it be the Lamanites” (Ether 4:3). In this passage Moroni once more refers to his being alone. Yet in the Ether 4:3 passage, Moroni does not refer to the robbers. Everywhere else in the text where Lamanites is conjoined with robbers, we find that the conjoined elements always have the same parallel construction; either both have the definite article the or neither do:

• 4 Nephi 1:17 (negatives only, no articles)
  • there were no robbers nor no murderers neither were there Lamanites
• Mormon 2:8 (no articles)
  • but behold the land was filled with robbers and with Lamanites
• Mormon 2:27 (repeated the)
  • but behold we did go forth against the Lamanites and the robbers of Gaddianton
• Mormon 2:28 (repeated the)
  • we made a treaty with the Lamanites and the robbers of Gaddianton

Thus Mormon 8:9, if it is to read consistently with the rest of the text, should not have the intrusive the. The critical text will restore the original reading without the the.