Translation: The idea that “charity never faileth” comes from 1 Corinthians 13:8 but is reworked in this passage. Mormon repeats the concept that one is nothing without charity. He then states simply: “Charity never faileth.” Shorn of its context in 1 Corinthians, there is little to go on to understand the function of the phrase in this passage. Only against those unimaginable things that might fail in Paul’s version (prophecies, miracles, knowledge) can we see the crucial importance of charity. “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1 Cor. 13:8).
All of these unthinkable failings have been omitted from this verse. Joseph’s translation pulled terminological references from 1 Corinthians 13, including this phrase, but not the context. This omission tells us that Mormon’s discourse was not identical to Paul’s but that Joseph’s translation has obscured Mormon’s original.