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Many Latter-day Saints seem unaware of the great body of scholarship that can strengthen faith and understanding for members of the Church and those exploring it. Such scholarship can be found at sources like FAIRScripture Central (including Book of Mormon Central), and Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and ScholarshipI’ve encountered some members who shrug their shoulders and say things like, “That may all be interesting, but we don’t need work from scholars to help us understand the scriptures — all we need are the plain teachings of the standard works.” When it comes to the specific mountain of fascinating research from Royal Skousen on the intricate details of the Book of Mormon text in light of the Original Manuscript, the Printer’s Manuscript, and various changes over time in the Book of Mormon, some seem to have a related attitude: “That may be interesting, but surely nothing of importance depends on the work of scholars.”

If you encounter this attitude, here’s one simple example that may open minds to the importance of modern scholarship from sound, faithful scholars. In Alma 39:13, Alma is guiding his wayward son, Corianton, who committed a serious moral sin while serving on a mission to the Zoramites. Alma implores his son to return to the Lord and stop leading people away into wickedness, “but rather return unto them and acknowledge your faults and that wrong which ye have done.” So it sounds like Corianton’s path to repentance is pretty much acknowledging to those he harmed that he was wrong. That’s how it reads in our current edition of the Book of Mormon, and it’s been that way since 1920. But prior to 1920, it was even more disconcerting, for there, Alma told Corianton to “acknowledge your faults and retain that wrong which ye have done.” Retain a wrong? Retain his sins? What’s going on?

Here’s where the modern scholarship of Royal Skousen resolves the problems and helps us appreciate the internal consistency of the remarkable text that Joseph Smith dictated. See his presentation, “Do We Need to Make Changes to the Book of Mormon Text?” at the 2012 FAIRMormon Conference. Skousen notes that we have the Original Manuscript for this passage, making it part of the lucky 20% of the Book of Mormon for which the Original Manuscript is extant. Careful examination of the manuscript shows that what Oliver Cowdery wrote as he took dictation from Joseph Smith was “acknowledge your faults and repair that wrong which ye have done.” However, he also spilled some drops of ink on the word repair, making the “p” look like a “t.” Thus, when Oliver created the Printer’s Manuscript, he concluded that the word must be “retain.” That word stuck for decades, and finally in 1920 this illogical, confusing word was simply removed, giving us what sounds more like cheap grace for Corianton rather than the normal expectation that sinners strive to make up for the harm they done as in Mosiah 27:35 and Helaman 5:17. The latter verse has “to endeavor to repair unto them the wrongs which they had done,” giving wording very similar to Alma 39:13 in the Original Manuscript.

Through modern scholarship, we can see that there are further corrections that need to be considered in our current Book of Mormon, beyond the need to repair Alma 39:13, as Royal Skousen has indicated. The change that conforms to the Original Manuscript has been made in his outstanding book, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 2009). The lightly modified second edition came out in 2022, but is not yet available in Kindle, just the first edition.

When understood in light of scholarship on the text of the Book of Mormon, we can see that Alma’s instructions to his son required more than simply admitting error. His instructions are consistent with the rest of the Book of Mormon. This has doctrinal significance. This episode reminds us that the scriptures, in spite of being inspired of God and even having miraculous origins, go through the hands of men and are subject to human errors. In this case, we are fortunate that human scholarship has been able to give us some valuable guidance that helps us better appreciate the consistency and accurate teachings of the Book of Mormon. Scholarship matters.

Here is the video of Royal Skousen’s 2012 presentation, “Do We Need to Make Changes to the Book of Mormon Text?“: