Jarom 1:14 Textual Variants

but behold my brethren ye can go to the other plates of Nephi for behold upon them the record of our wars are engraven according to the writings of the kings or that which they [caused 1ABDEFHIJKLMNOPQRST|cause CG] to be written

Here the 1840 edition replaced the past-tense caused with the present-tense cause, perhaps under the inﬂuence of the preceding present-tense verb phrase are engraven. This change was probably unintentional, although one can make sense out of the present-tense usage: a Nephite king would have been ruling when Jarom wrote this passage, and therefore it would not be inaccurate to say that the kings were still having their writings engraven upon the large plates of Nephi. The 1858 Wright edition maintained the present-tense cause, but the past-tense caused was restored in the 1874 RLDS edition. Similar passages in the text use the past-tense or past-participial caused in the phrase “caused to be written”:

2 Nephi 11:1 only these things have I caused to be written
Mosiah 2:9 these are the words which he spake and caused to be written
Mosiah 28:11 after having translated and caused to be written the records
Ether 4:16 my revelations which I have caused to be written by my servant John

Summary: Maintain the past-tense caused in Jarom 1:14 (“or that which they caused to be written”).

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 2

References