Alma 8:1 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
And [𝓒① NULL > 𝓒⑑ now 1|now ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] it came to pass that Alma returned from the land of Gideon

Here scribe 2 of π“Ÿ accidentally omitted the narrative adverb now. Oliver Cowdery, in his proofing of π“Ÿ against π“ž, supplied the now. Since either reading is possible, Oliver’s correction was undoubtedly the reading in π“ž. Earlier, in Alma 5:6, scribe 2 of π“Ÿ omitted such a now; in that instance, scribe 2 caught his error (see that passage for discussion). Here in Alma 8:1, Oliver provided the now. There are three other instances in π“Ÿ where scribe 2 omitted the adverb now, and in each case Oliver supplied it:

Note that the example in 3 Nephi 20:10 is not an instance of the narrative now; instead, in this case the now means β€˜at this present time’. The two others are examples of the narrative adverb now.

Summary: Maintain in Alma 8:1 the narrative adverb now that scribe 2 of π“Ÿ omitted but Oliver Cowdery supplied in his proofing of π“Ÿ against π“ž.

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

References