Moroni 8:26 Textual Variants

In the printer’s manuscript, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote the relative clause as “which endureth by diligence unto prayer”. Virtually immediately Oliver supralinearly inserted love after which; the correction occurs at the end of the manuscript line, and there is no change in the level of the ink flow. This correction is undoubtedly based on the reading of the original manuscript since in theory either reading is possible. One could say that both hope and love “endureth by diligence unto prayer”. But earlier, in the previous chapter of Moroni, there is specific evidence for love enduring, namely, in Mormon’s discourse on charity (which in some phrases parallels Paul’s discourse in 1 Corinthians 13):

• Moroni 7:46–47
  •   wherefore my beloved brethren
      if ye have not charity ye are nothing
      for charity never faileth
      wherefore cleave unto charity
      which is the greatest of all
      for all things must fail
      but charity is the pure love of Christ
    → and it endureth forever
      and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day
      it shall be well with them

Thus in Moroni 8:26 the restriction to love enduring is entirely appropriate.