3 Nephi 8:12 Textual Variants

Here 𝓟 reads tempests, in the plural, while the 1830 edition reads tempest, in the singular. The conjoined nouns in this sentence are in the plural (“and the whirlwinds and the thunderings and the lightnings”) except for the final one (“and the exceeding great quaking of the whole earth”). In addition, there is nearby evidence for the replacement of tempests with tempest in the early text, although in this case the singular form occurs in 𝓟, if only momentarily, rather than in the 1830 edition:

• 3 Nephi 8:17
  • and thus the face of the whole earth became deformed because of the [tempest > tempests 1|tempests ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and the thunderings and the lightnings and the quaking of the earth

In this instance, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote tempest in 𝓟 but virtually immediately corrected it to tempests (there is no change in the level of ink flow for the inserted s). Also note that in this passage we once more have the plural tempests conjoined with the plurals thunderings and lightnings, which is then followed by the singular quaking. Further support for the conjoining of plural tempests and whirlwinds occurs a little later in 3 Nephi:

• 3 Nephi 10:14
  • he that hath the scriptures let him search them and see and behold if all these deaths and destructions by fire and by smoke and by tempests and by whirlwinds and by the opening of the earth to receive them and all these things is not unto the fulfilling of the prophecies of many of the holy prophets

Thus it seems quite reasonable to assume that the singular tempest in the 1830 edition for 3 Nephi 8:12 is an error for tempests.

In 3 Nephi 8:19, a little further on in this chapter, we get the singular tempest, but it is conjoined with an immediately preceding singular noun, storm; interestingly, in this passage we get the plural quakings rather than the singular quaking:

• 3 Nephi 8:19
  • and it came to pass that when the thunderings and the lightnings and the storm and the tempest and the quakings of the earth did cease …

Yet here the semantics and syntax are somewhat different than the two cases in 3 Nephi 8:12, 17. For further discussion of variation in the grammatical number for tempest(s), see under 1 Nephi 19:11. Also see the case under 3 Nephi 22:11, a biblical quotation from Isaiah 54:11, which gives an example where scribe 2 of 𝓟 miswrote tempest as tempests.