2 Nephi 29:11 Textual Variants

From a prescriptive point of view, their could be changed to his (as was done in the 1953 RLDS edition). Nonetheless, the treatment of every as a grammatical plural is very common in everyday speech—and even in standard English when the plural referent occurs in an adjacent clause. (Consider, for instance, expressions like “everyone came, didn’t they” versus the impossibility of “everyone came, didn’t he or she”.) For further discussion, see every in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage.

One reason that the original text in 2 Nephi 29:11 has their may be because the language here is related to Revelation 20:12 (as noted in the previous discussion): “and the dead were judged out of those things ... according to their works”. Moreover, usage elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text supports the use of their since the original text has a number of similar examples (some of which show a mixed use of his and their):

• Mosiah 27:4
  • every man should esteem his neighbor as himself laboring with their own hands for their support
• Alma 9:28
  • [every man >js all men 1|every man A|all men BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] shall reap a reward of [their >js his 1|their ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] works according to that which they have been :
• Alma 17:37
  • every man that lifted his club to smite Ammon he smote off their arms with his sword
• Alma 51:31
  • for every man of Teancum did exceed the Lamanites in their strength and in their skill of war insomuch that they did gain advantage over the Lamanites

Only in one example (Alma 9:28) has the number been edited. There Joseph Smith initially changed the their to his, but then he realized that he would also need to change the following clause to read “according to that which he has been”. Joseph apparently changed his mind and decided to simply alter the singular every man to all men and thus keep the following plural pronouns their and they.