Mosiah 26:22–23 Textual Variants

Richard Tripp II, a student in my fall 1997 textual criticism class, suggested that the plural pronoun them in this passage may be an error for him. As noted under 1 Nephi 10:18–19, there is manuscript evidence that the scribe in 𝓞 sometimes had difficulty determining whether Joseph Smith had dictated them or him. Tripp observed that the use of them in this passage seems to imply that God created the sins of the world—that is, the plural sins might be misinterpreted as the antecedent for them. Elsewhere this passage uses the singular him rather than the plural them as the generic pronoun: “and him will I freely forgive” and “it is I that granteth unto him that believeth”, so perhaps the original text also read him in “for it is I that hath created him”.

There are several problems with this suggestion. First of all, him instead of them would definitely sound quite strange in the larger context of “for it is I that taketh upon me the sins of the world / for it is I that hath created him”. There is nothing in the preceding clause for the him to refer to; one has to go earlier in the passage to find the generic reference: “and whosoever ye receive shall believe in my name and him will I freely forgive”. Secondly, it seems that the antecedent for the them is actually the world, which by implication is plural. There is one other passage that uses plural pronouns in referring to the world (but by inference to the people of the world):

• 1 Nephi 19:9
  • and the world because of their iniquity shall judge him to be a thing of naught wherefore they scourge him and he suffereth it and they smite him and he suffereth it yea they spit upon him and he suffereth it

Finally, we should note that throughout the larger passage we find additional shifting between singular and plural, as in the immediately following text:

• Mosiah 26:23–24
  • and it is I that granteth unto him that believeth in the end a place at my right hand for behold in my name are they called and if they know me they shall come forth

Given all of these factors, the them in Mosiah 26:23 should probably be interpreted as referring to the nearest noun, world (that is, the people of the world).