Tuesday, December 7, 2021

2 Nephi 25:23 in the Printer's Manuscript and 1830 Book of Mormon: "After all THAT we can do"

In editions of the Book of Mormon from 1837 to the present, the text of 2 Nephi 25:23 reads:

 

For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

 

However, the Printer's Manuscript and the 1830 edition reads differently. Instead of "after all we can do" they read "after all that we can do." Here is p. 82 of the Printer's Manuscript:

 



 

Here is p.105 of the 1830 Book of Mormon:

 



 

This reading has been restored in Royal Skousen, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Texts (Yale: Yale University Press, 2009), 132.


This may be a small change, but exegetically, it is important. On "after all that we can do" other constructions of “after all (that) [NOUN/PRONOUN] can do," see:


Daniel O. McClellan, “2 Nephi 25:23 in Literary and Rhetorical Context,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 1-19