Book Of Mormon Editorial Self-Corrections

              The Book of Mormon does not claim to be perfect, but nearly so. Errors in the book have been found and corrected since 1830 when it was published. Amendments continue to be made as necessary. Errors can occur at any number of levels in the writing. Errors may have occurred by Joseph Smith misspeaking a line. The scribe may have misheard, or may written it down wrong. Errors were possible when a copy was made, and finally, errors could have been made by the typesetter. We won't add to that the errors made in the mind of the reader. Whensoever and wheresoever a human is involved, the possibility of error is there. But, I want to write of errors made by the writers themselves from Nephi to Moroni. We don't see many of these and we only know of them because the writer corrected himself. I call these editorial self-corrections. For example: Alma 63:15 "... War against the people of Moronihah, or against the Army of Moronihah...". This is an easy one. Mormon writes the war is against the people and, no, the war is against the Army. He is writing on metal, so corrections are difficult. Of course, Joseph Smith may have misread the phrase "war against the people" and corrected it himself saying "war against the Army" and the scribe wrote both versions just as he heard Joseph Smith speak it. I think this is unlikely since Joseph reviewed the manuscript more than once.

              I'm going to now write a list of some verses in the Book of Mormon that may reflect editorial self-corrections. Some are obvious and some are not and perhaps are not self-corrections at all but just statements that are ambiguous.

              Alma 50:32 "... The people who were in the Land Bountiful, or rather Moroni...".

              Alma 24:19 is also quite straightforward. "... They buried their weapons of peace, or they buried their weapons of war, for peace”.

              Alma 56:14. ".. The land of Manti, or the city of Manti...".

              Alma 35:. 15 ".. Having been to declare the word, or sent to declare the word."

You will note that these examples include the word ‘or’ to signify the correction. But this is not always the case.

              Alma 8:29 "And the word came to Alma, saying: go; and also send my servant Amulek, go forth and prophesy...". Is this a self-direction or not? The word ‘go’ is repeated as though Mormon had left out Amulek in the narrative and decided he needed to be there. The original thought is interrupted in order to include Amulek. Once he is inserted, Mormon goes back to the message starting over again with the word 'go'.

              The first verse that is possibly a correction is found in 1 Nephi 1:17. In verses one through three Nephi says he is writing this record according to his own knowledge. Then he commences talking about Lehi, his father. The record starts with I, Nephi, then lapses into he, Lehi. In verse 17 Nephi catches up with himself and clarifies the record. He says again "but I shall make an account of my proceedings in my days." Here Nephi corrects himself and says "behold, I make an abridgment of the record of my father... Then will I make an account of mine own life." Now that's clear and he proceeds telling about Lehi.

              Here is one that is less certain. Moroni. 8:22 ".. Wherefore, he that is not condemned, or he that is under no condemnation,...". Moroni is speaking of little children and he wants to make sure we understand that children are not under condemnation.

              Alma 50:14 ".. They called the name of the city, or the land, Nephihah...".

              I find Alma 27:22 confusing and that may because Mormon was trying to fix a mistake. Or maybe not.. ".. Jershon, which is on the East by the sea, which joins the Land Bountiful, which is on the south of the Land Bountiful...". By the sea on the East? by Bountiful on the South? and I start getting confused. But this may not be an error at all. I suppose Jershon could join Bountiful by the East Sea on the South. It's just a little confusing. Maybe Alma or Mormon meant to say Jershon is on the East by the sea, to the south of Bountiful, leaving out the part about joining Bountiful.              

              Look at Words of Mormon chapter 1:3.. ".. Which contained the small account of the prophets, from Jacob down to the reign of this King Benjamin...". Wait a minute, from Jacob to Benjamin? What happened to Nephi? Nephi was left out. What to do? Mormon adds a tag line. ".. And also many of the words of Nephi...".

              And what about 1 Nephi 11:25? "... The rod of iron..., Which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life..". So, did the rod of iron lead to the fountain, the tree, or both? Probably both. This might not be an editorial self correction. But it isn't entirely clear.

              Third Nephi chapter 7:1.. ".. They did destroy upon the judgment seat, yea, did murder the chief judge...". Just so we are clear, 'destroy' meant 'murder'.

              Alma 46:17.. ".. God, he named all the land which was South of the Land Desolation, yea, and in fine, all the land, both on the North and on the South...". Mormon, after saying all the land South of Desolation was chosen, corrects himself to include both the land South and North.

              One more. Ether 10:20. "And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land." So which was it? Was the city by the narrow neck or was it by the place where the sea divides the land? Perhaps both places are near each other and so the city is near both. It is not clear.

              More editorial self-corrections may be found. Look for the word "or" as one clue. Another clue would be an abrupt change or interruption of the thought. All these examples only tell us these were real people doing their best. A perfect book would be indicative of a false book. Nobody is perfect.

Peter K Bellville