Ether 12:41 Textual Variants

and now I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written that the grace of God the Father and also the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost which beareth record of them may be and abide [in 1ABCDEFGIJLMNOPQRST|with HK] you forever

Once more the 1874 RLDS edition introduced a minor change in the text (from “abide in you” to “abide with you”). This rash of changes suggests tiring on the part of the typesetter for this part of the text. In modern English, we expect the preposition with here, which seems to have triggered this error in the 1874 RLDS edition. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the correct preposition to the RLDS text.

Elsewhere the Book of Mormon text allows either in or with to occur with the verb abide:

Alma 17:9
- that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them and abide with them
Mormon 2:26
- yea we were left to ourselves that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us
Moroni 9:26
- and may the grace of God the Father whose throne is high in the heavens and our Lord Jesus Christ who sitteth on the right hand of his power until all things shall become subject unto him be and abide with you forever

In addition, the use of in with abide is characteristic of the epistles of John in the King James Bible, as in 1 John 2:14: “and the word of God abideth in you”. Thus there is no need to replace the biblically supported in with with here in Ether 12:41.

Summary: Maintain in Ether 12:41 the use of the preposition in with the verb abide, which is supported by usage in both the Book of Mormon and the King James Bible (especially in the epistles of John).

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

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