Ether 7:8 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and Shule waxed strong and became mighty as to the strength of a man and [he 1ABDEFIJLMNOPQRST| CGHK] was also mighty in judgment

The 1840 edition omitted the pronoun he here in Ether 7:8. One could argue that this deletion was intentional since in the immediately preceding text there is no explicit subject for the conjoined predicate (“and became mighty as to the strength of a man”). However, the also that occurs here in the final clause (“and he was also mighty in judgment”) separates that clause from the preceding clause with its pair of conjoined predicates (“and Shule waxed strong and became mighty as to the strength of a man”). Also note how that pair of conjoined predicates refers to Shule’s physical strength, but the final clause refers to his ability to judge. Similar constructions are found elsewhere in the book of Ether:

In these two examples, the also separates the final clause from the initial clause with its pair of conjoined predicates. Thus the occurrence of “and he also” in Ether 7:8 is perfectly fine. The omission of he in the 1840 edition was probably a typo rather than the result of intentional editing.

Summary: Maintain in Ether 7:8 the original subject pronoun he in “and he was also mighty in judgment”; the also separates that final clause from the initial clause with its pair of conjoined predicates.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 6

References