Helaman 9:10 Textual Variants

Here the earliest text reads “the great and chief judge”. In the 1837 edition, the and was omitted, perhaps intentionally. This change suggests the possibility that here the original text read without the and as “the great chief judge”. There are, as one might expect, numerous examples in the text where we have “great and ”, as in Helaman 13:18: “our great and true God”. In the case of “great chief judge”, on the other hand, one could consider chief judge as a compound noun modified by the adjective great.

In the Book of Mormon, the adjective great, whenever it modifies a noun representing a political position, can be thought of as meaning ‘supreme’. We have several instances of such usage in the earliest text:

• Alma 58:4 (original manuscript only)
  • and it came to pass that I thus did send an embassy
    to the great governor of our land
• Alma 60:24
  • behold it will be expedient that we contend no more with the Lamanites
    until we have first cleansed our inward vessel
    yea even the great head of our government
• 3 Nephi 3:18
  • now the chiefest among all the chief captains
    and the great commander of all the armies of the Nephites
    was appointed and his name was Gidgiddoni

But there are no other examples of great modifying chief judge as a unit or judge alone. Note that in these three other examples the form is always “the great X of Y”, which is different in that respect from the form here in Helaman 9:10 (“the great and chief judge which had been slain”).

A parallel example to the earliest reading in Helaman 9:10 can be found in 2 Nephi; in that instance, the original and has been retained:

• 2 Nephi 9:22
  • and he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men
    that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day

Here we have one more instance of “great and ”; not only does the noun judgment modify day, but great does too. And we can find support for the phrase great day referring to the day of judgment; note, in particular, that the first of the following examples has an instance of conjoined great modifying day (marked below with an arrow):

• 2 Nephi 33:12–13
  •   and I pray the Father in the name of Christ
      that many of us—if not all—may be saved in his kingdom
    → at that great and last day
      and now my beloved brethren
      all they which are of the house of Israel
      and all ye ends of the earth
      I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust
      farewell until that great day shall come
• Mormon 9:2
  • behold will ye believe in the day of your visitation
    behold when the Lord shall come
    yea even that great day when the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll
    and the elements shall melt with fervent heat
    yea in that great day when ye shall be brought to stand before the Lamb of God
    then will ye say that there is no God

There are five other instances in the text of “great and last day”, plus two of “great and dreadful day” and one of “great and coming day”, all in reference to the “great day” of judgment. These other examples of “great and day” further support the expression “great and judgment day”. And the latter supports the expression “the great and chief judge” here in Helaman 9:10. Thus the critical text will restore the original and between great and chief in “the great and chief judge”.