Alma 2:30 Textual Variants

Here we have two instances where Joseph Smith removed the redundant subject pronoun he in his editing for the 1837 edition. The first one is like the he that Joseph deleted earlier in verse 16:

• Alma 2:16
  • now Alma [he >js NULL 1|he A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] being the chief judge and the governor of the people of Nephi therefore he went up with his people

As discussed under Alma 2:16, the redundant he before the present participle being will be restored in both verses 16 and 30.

When deleting the second redundant he in verse 30, Joseph Smith also deleted the preceding and. His purpose here was not only to remove a redundancy but also to avoid a non-English Hebrew-like construction where and precedes the main clause after a present participial clause. Such examples are fairly prevalent in the original text when the participial clause involves some additional clausal element. Here in Alma 2:30, we have the additional present participial clause “being exercised with much faith”. Here are two similar examples elsewhere in the original text:

• 1 Nephi 4:21–22
  • and he supposing me to be his master Laban for he beheld the garments and also the sword girded about my loins and he spake unto me concerning the elders of the Jews
• Alma 19:14
  • now Ammon seeing the Spirit of the Lord poured out according to his prayers upon the Lamanites his brethren which had been the cause of so much mourning among the Nephites or among all the people of God because of their iniquities and their traditions and Ammon fell upon his knees

Like Alma 2:30, this Hebraistic construction has been removed from the text for these two examples (see under each of these passages for discussion). The critical text will restore the original reading here in Alma 2:30 and elsewhere. For further discussion, see under hebraisms in volume 3.