behold I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and [a 1| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] just God under a consciousness of your filthiness before him …
The printer’s manuscript here has the repeated a (“with a holy and a just God”), whereas the 1830 edition lacks the repeated a (“with a holy and just God”).
Elsewhere in the history of the text, there have been numerous examples where a repeated a (or an) has been dropped in this same context (namely, between conjoined attributive
adjectives in a noun phrase):
- 1 Nephi 11:35 (omitted in the 1830 edition, although added earlier in 𝓟 by Oliver Cowdery)
- a large and [ 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|a 1] spacious building
- 1 Nephi 12:18 (omitted in the 1858 Wright edition and in the 1906 LDS edition)
- a great and [a 01ABCDEFIJLMOPQRST| GHKN] terrible gulf
- 1 Nephi 12:23 (initially added by scribe 2 of 𝓞; its ultimate deletion by scribe 2 of 𝓞 may be an error)
- a dark [a > & 0|& 1|and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] loathsome and a filthy people
- 1 Nephi 14:7 (omitted in the 1840 edition)
- a great and [a 1ABDEFIJLMNOPQRST| CGHK] marvelous work
- 2 Nephi 30:6 (omitted in the 1849 LDS edition)
- a [white 1ABDEFIJLMNOPQRS|pure CGHKT] and [a 1ABCDGHKPST| EFIJLMNOQR] delightsome people
- Omni 1:28 (omitted in the 1852 LDS edition)
- a strong and [a 1ABCDEGPS| FHIJKLMNOQRT] mighty man
- Mosiah 27:7 (omitted in the 1840 edition and in the 1852 LDS edition)
- a large and [a 1ABDEPS| CFGHIJKLMNOQRT] wealthy people
- Alma 9:5 (omitted in the 1858 Wright edition)
- a hard-hearted and [a 1ABCDEFIJLMNOQRT| GHKPS] stiffnecked people
- Alma 9:30 (omitted in the 1905 LDS edition)
- a lost and [a 1ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPRST| MQ] fallen people
- Alma 9:32 (omitted in the 1840 edition)
- a lost and [a 1ABDEFIJLMNOPQRST| CGHK] fallen people
- Alma 11:26 (omitted in the 1837 edition)
- a true and [a 01A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] living God
- Alma 11:27 (omitted in the 1841 British edition)
- a true and [a 1ABCGHKPS| DEFIJLMNOQRT] living God
- Alma 12:22 (omitted in the 1852 LDS edition)
- a lost and [a 01ABCDEGHKPS| FIJLMNOQRT] fallen people
- Alma 17:14 (omitted in the 1902 LDS edition)
- a wild and [a 1ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRST| L] hardened and a ferocious people Alma 20:30 (omitted in the 1902 LDS edition)
- a more hardened and [a 1ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRST| L] more stiffnecked people
- Alma 30:13 (omitted in the 1874 RLDS edition)
- a foolish and [a 01ABCDEFGIJLMNOPQRST| HK] vain hope
- Alma 34:10 (omitted in the 1837 edition)
- an infinite and [an 01A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] eternal sacrifice
- Alma 43:6 (omitted in the 1841 British edition)
- a more wicked and [a 01ABCG| DEFHIJKLMNOPQRST] murderous disposition
- Alma 46:3 (omitted in the 1840 edition)
- a large and [a 01ABDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST| C] strong man
- Helaman 1:15 (omitted in the 1858 Wright edition)
- a large and [a 01ABCDEFIJLMNOPQRST| GHK] mighty man
- 3 Nephi 5:9 (omitted in the 1874 RLDS edition and in the 1920 LDS edition)
- a [more short 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQS|shorter RT] but [a 1ABCDEFGIJLMNOPQS| HKRT] true account
- 3 Nephi 21:9 (omitted in the 1852 LDS edition)
- a great and [a 1ABCDEGHKPRST| FIJLMNOQ] marvelous work
- Ether 1:34 (omitted in the 1852 LDS edition)
- a large and [a 1ABCDEGPS| FHIJKLMNOQRT] mighty man
The first and third cases show the scribe adding the repeated a, Oliver Cowdery in 𝓟 for 1 Nephi 11:35 and scribe 2 of 𝓞 for 1 Nephi 12:23 (see under those two passages for discussion).
We have no firm cases where scribe 2 of 𝓟 ever added (or omitted, for that matter) the repeated a. As we can see, in the editions the consistent tendency has been to omit the repeated
a; and 1 Nephi 11:35 shows one case where the 1830 typesetter made this error. Here in Mormon 9:4 we apparently have a second case. The critical text will therefore restore the repeated
a in this case (thus “with a holy and a just God”).
