The current
text of Alma 17:3 reads:
But this is not all; they had given themselves
to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the
spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with the power and
authority of God.
However, the
1830 Book of Mormon reads a bit differently:
But this is not all: they had
given themselves to much prayer, and fasting, therefore they had the spirit of
prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with
power and authority, even as with the power and authority of God.
As Skousen notes (Analysis of Textual Variants of
the Book of Mormon, p. 1949):
The 1837 edition omitted the
phrase “even as with the power and authority”, probably because the typesetter’s
eye skipped from the first instance of power and authority to the second
one. . . . One possible reason for consciously omitting the phrase “even as with
the power and authority” is the occurrence of the as. In current English,
the as implies a hypothetical aspect, as if the text is saying “even as if
wit the power and authority of God”. Clearly, the sons of Mosiah taught with
the power and authority of God. The purpose of the as is to indicate
that by all appearances their power and authority was from God. Interestingly,
there is an example in the text of as if with that has little, if any, hypothetical
sense:
Alma 56:56
but behold to my great joy
there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth
yea and they had fought as if with the strength of God
yea never was men known to have fought with such miraculously strength.
The meaning of “they had fought as
if with the strength of God” seems to be ‘they fought by all appearances
with the strength of God’. The critical text will therefore restore the
original reading in Alma 17:3 (“even as with power and authority of God”).
Despite the unexpectedness of the as in Ama 17:3, its original use here
appears to be intentional.
Skousen (Ibid., p. 1950) then offers this summary:
Restore in Alma 17:3 the phrase “even
as with the power and authority”, thus maintaining the earliest reading: “and when
they taught / they taught with power and authority even as with the power and
authority of God”; the use of as in the final phrase appears to mean ‘by
all appearances’.
