Ether 14:1 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
if a man should lay his tool or his sword upon [the 1APS|his BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] shelf or upon the place whither he would keep it …

In the 1837 edition, it would appear that the typesetter accidentally replaced the with his in the phrase “upon the shelf ”, probably because of the preceding occurrences of his in “if a man should lay his tool or his sword”. The definite article the is perfectly fine. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the the, as will the critical text.

Summary: Restore in Ether 14:1 the definite article the in the phrase “upon the shelf”, the reading of the earliest extant text.

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

References