Mosiah 29:28 Textual Variants

The earliest reading, in the printer’s manuscript, has the singular pronoun he even though the preceding text refers to judges and uses the plural pronoun they to refer to those judges. The 1830 typesetter rejected the conflict between the two earlier plural forms and the following singular he by editing the he to they. He even penciled in this change in 𝓟. In support of this emendation, the plural usage continues in the following verse:

• Mosiah 29:29
  • if your higher judges doth not judge righteous judgments ye shall cause that a small number of your lower judges should be gathered together and they shall judge your higher judges

Yet it is doubtful that the earlier he in verse 28 is a mishearing or misreading of they. As discussed under 1 Nephi 10:18–19, the original text sometimes permits shifts in number when the pronoun is generic, as here in Mosiah 29:28.