3 Nephi 2:1 Textual Variants

Ross Geddes suggests (personal communication, 23 May 2006) that at the beginning of this passage the original text may have read “those signs and wonders which they had heard and seen”, just as it does later on in the verse (“all which they had heard and seen”). Since 𝓟 and the 1830 edition agree here near the beginning of the verse in having only heard, if there is an error it must have occurred as Oliver Cowdery took down Joseph Smith’s dictation. The only sign that is given in detail (described in 3 Nephi 1:9–21 as the night that was as bright as day, accompanied by the appearance of a new star) had been physically seen, not heard. These signs and wonders were definitely seen (3 Nephi 1:22), but the later reference in 3 Nephi 2:1 to “all which they had heard and seen” implies that at least some of those signs and wonders had been heard.

Elsewhere the text shows an equal tendency to refer to things that have been perceived by the physical senses as either “seen and heard” (including “heard and seen”) or as simply “seen”. For instance, in relative clauses that refer to things which have been seen or heard, in the original text there are 17 instances that combine see and hear (as at the end of 3 Nephi 2:1). On the other hand, there are 18 instances where the verb see occurs but the verb hear does not. In contrast, there is only one other case of this nature where the verb hear occurs without the verb see. (For these statistics, I include only those cases where the semantics allows for see and hear to co-occur even though only one of the verbs may actually occur.) The one other case with only hear refers to the conversion of the four sons of king Mosiah and what they saw and heard when the angel of the Lord appeared to them (and to Alma, the son of Alma), yet nearby references to that experience include the word see; in fact, we get an example of each possibility (first hear and see together, then see alone, and finally hear alone):

• Mosiah 27:32
  • and now it came to pass that
    Alma began from this time forward to teach the people and those which were with Alma at the time the angel appeared unto them traveling round about through all the land publishing to all the people the things which they had heard and seen and preaching the word of God in much tribulation
• Mosiah 27:35
  • and after they had traveled throughout all the land of Zarahemla and among all the people which was under the reign of king Mosiah zealously striving to repair all the injuries which they had done to the church confessing all their sins and publishing all the things which they had seen
    and explaining the prophecies and the scriptures to all who desired to hear them …
• Mosiah 28:1
  • Now it came to pass that after the sons of Mosiah had done all these things they took a small number with them and returned to their father the king and desired of him that he would grant unto them that they might with those whom they had selected go up to the land of Nephi that they might preach the things which they had heard and that they might impart the word of God to their brethren the Lamanites

Thus the use of hear alone near the beginning of 3 Nephi 2:1 is not impossible even though overall the signs and wonders referred to in 3 Nephi 1 were “heard and seen”. The critical text will therefore maintain the earliest reading, “and the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard”, the agreed reading of both 𝓟 and the 1830 edition and the likely reading in 𝓞.