One of the most critical resources in studying the earliest text of the Book of Mormon is The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text by Royal Skousen. It can currently be purchased from Amazon for about $22. It is an overview that represents Royal Skousen’s final determination of the most likely text. A more detailed six volume set, entitled Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, is out of print, but can sometimes be found for sell on Amazon, in part or in whole.
The Book of Mormon Central website has electronic copies of both The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text and Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. However, the serious researcher should be wary of relying on the electronic text, as a friend of mine, Roger Pollard, stumbled upon at least one typo in The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Multiple attempts to contact the webmaster and editors of Book of Mormon Central to correct the error resulted in no response. I do not know if there are any more typos than the one I describe below, but the fact that even one exists means that anything in these digital copies should be checked against a printed source before trusting its validity.
In the digital copy on Book of Mormon Central, the text for 1 Nephi 19:20 contains the line, “For hath not the Lord been merciful”.
The printed copy contains the line, “For had not the Lord been merciful”, which is the same text that appears in the current edition of the Book of Mormon.
Whether this word is had or hath has implications for a study of the grammatical structure the Lord used when giving Joseph Smith the translated text. At first I thought the electronic copy might represent a newer and more accurate analysis than the printed copy, which would be a somewhat exciting idea. But a closer analysis shows that it is simply a typo, likely from an earlier, pre-proofread copy of the book. Below are several sources that one would expect to show something if the actual text was hath.
The original manuscript of the Book of Mormon
The original manuscript uses the word had.
The printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon
The printer’s manuscript uses the word had.
The Significant Textual Changes appendix of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text
The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text has an appendix that lists significant changes. If the word hath in the digital copy on Book of Mormon Central were intentional, I would expect it would have been listed as a significant change. The fact that it is omitted in the appendix of the digital copy as well as the printed copy was my first indication that this was a typo instead of an intentional change.
Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon
Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon contains detailed analysis of the changes made to the text. Part one contains the entries for 1 Nephi 19. There are two entries fro 1 Nephi 19:20. Both the electronic copy on Book of Mormon Central and the printed copy are the same in regards to these entries. Neither of them indicate the word had was ever hath.
