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 Pau’s but that Joseph’s translation has
obscured Mormon’s original. (Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical
and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007], 6:381)
