Alma 19:27 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and that it was the Great Spirit that had always attended the Nephites which had [ever /even 1|ever ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] delivered them out of their hands

The word ever, as written here in 𝓟 by Oliver Cowdery, looks like the word even. (For discussion of the similarity of Oliver’s n’s and r ’s, see under Mosiah 2:15–16.) Here in Alma 19:27, the 1830 typesetter correctly interpreted the word as ever rather than even, as in other instances of the adverb ever that occur with the past-tense perfect auxiliary had. In these cases, the ever can occur either before or after the had:

The last example is especially similar to Alma 19:27, having the same placement of the ever after the had and with the same meaning of ‘always’. In contrast, the word even would not really work in Alma 19:27.

Summary: Maintain in Alma 19:27 the 1830 typesetter’s interpretation of ever /even as ever (with its meaning ‘always’) in the relative clause “which had ever delivered them out of their hands”.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 3

References