Moroni 4:1 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and the elder or priest did [minister 1ABCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|administer D] it

Here at the end of verse 1 the 1841 British edition replaced the verb minister with administer,

undoubtedly because earlier in this verse there are two instances of administer:

As explained under Alma 15:18, usage in earlier English allowed for either verb here in Moroni 4:1 (also see the discussion under Alma 17:18). For each case of (ad)minister, the critical text will follow the earliest reading—thus the verb minister for the third instance in Moroni 4:1.

Summary: In Moroni 4:1 both minister and administer are possible in referring to the sacrament; the earliest textual sources support administer for the first two occurrences in Moroni 4:1 but minister for the third one.

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

References