Mormon 8:37 Textual Variants

Here both scribe 2 of 𝓟 and the 1830 typesetter copied the word from 𝓞 as substances, in the plural. Later Oliver Cowdery, when he proofed 𝓟 against 𝓞, corrected the plural in 𝓟 to the singular by crossing out the plural s. This was probably editing on his part. He seems to have written down substances in 𝓞, then later decided to correct it in 𝓟. The plural s was removed from the RLDS text in 1908, from the LDS text in 1920.

Elsewhere in the text, as one might suspect, there are only singular occurrences of substance (26 times). The word always acts as a mass noun rather than a count noun, as in these examples involving lists of possessions (like Mormon 8:37):

• Mosiah 4:19
  • do we not all depend upon the same being even God for all the substance which we have for both food and raiment and for gold and for silver and for all the riches which we have of every kind
• Helaman 13:28
  • yea ye will lift him up and ye will give unto him of your substance ye will give unto him of your gold and of your silver and ye will clothe him with costly apparel
• 3 Nephi 3:13
  • yea he sent a proclamation among all the people that they should gather together their women and their children their flocks and their herds and all their substance save it were their land unto one place
• 3 Nephi 3:22
  • and they had taken their horses and their chariots and their cattle and all their flocks and their herds and their grain and all their substance
• 3 Nephi 4:3
  • for the Nephites had left their lands desolate and had gathered their flocks and their herds and all their substance
• 4  Nephi 1:25
  • and from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them

In the last example, the 1892 RLDS edition has the plural substances, thus showing that this error can occur (for a brief discussion, see under 4 Nephi 1:25).

Oliver Cowdery frequently added and deleted plural s’s in taking down Joseph Smith’s dictation. In the following examples in 𝓞, he initially added the plural s to nouns where the context does not permit the plural:

• 1 Nephi 22:17 even unto the [destructions > destruction 0] of their enemies by fire
• Alma 27:23 between the [lands >% land 0] Jershon and the land Nephi
• Alma 30:47 it is better that thy [souls > soul 0] should be lost
• Alma 31:28 behold O my God their costly [apparrels >% apparrel 0]
• Alma 32:42 and your patience with the [words >% word 0] in nourishing it
• Alma 42:1 the justice of God in the [punishments > punishment 0] of the sinner
• Alma 45:20 Helaman went forth among the [Peoples >% People 0]
• Alma 46:24 so shall a remnant of the seed of my son be preserved by the [hands >% hand 0] of God
• Alma 47:1 to go to [battles >% battle 0] against the Nephites
• Alma 50:34 by the narrow pass which led by the [Seas >% Sea 0]
• Alma 51:17 to pull down their [prides >% pride 0]
• Alma 51:21 and the [prides > pride 0] of those people
• Alma 57:6 to the number of six [thousands >% thousand 0] men
• Alma 57:27 and they do put their [trusts > trust 0] in God continually
• Helaman 16:1 the words of Samuel the [Lamanites >% Lamanite 0]

Note, in particular, the case of the mass noun apparel in Alma 31:28, which Oliver initially wrote down as a plural count noun. So it is quite possible that in Mormon 8:37 he accidentally added the plural s to the mass noun substance as he took down Joseph’s dictation. Although the plural substances is not totally impossible, it is highly unlikely. The critical text will therefore accept the modern-day LDS and RLDS emendations of the plural to the singular substance here in Mormon 8:37.