Alma 40:7 Textual Variants

There has been a persistent tendency in this sentence to change “from this time of death” to “from the time of death”. This change has occurred three times in the history of the text: (1) when Oliver Cowdery initially copied this phrase into 𝓟, (2) when the type was set for the 1841 British edition, and (3) when the type was originally set for the 1852 LDS edition. In the first instance, Oliver corrected the initial the in 𝓟 to this by overwriting the e with an i and then inserting inline the s; there is no change in the level of ink flow for the correction, so it seems to be virtually immediate. In the third instance, prior to the second printing of the 1852 edition (also in that same year), the stereotyped plates were corrected by reference to the 1840 edition.

The original manuscript is basically extant for this phrase, and it reads “from this time of death”. The apparent source for the change from this to the is the preceding sentence (in verse 6), where we get “the time of death and the time of the resurrection” (both the ’s are extant in 𝓞):

• Alma 40:6–7
  • and now there must needs be a space betwixt the time of death and the time of the resurrection and now I would inquire what becometh of the souls of men from this time of death to the time appointed for the resurrection

The critical text, of course, will maintain the original “from this time of death” in Alma 40:7.