3 Nephi 17:10 Textual Variants

The preposition for seems strange here. One wonders if the for might be an error for some other preposition. The phrase here seems to mean ‘because of the multitude’ or ‘given the multitude’. Interestingly, usage like this is found in the King James Bible. In fact, there is one involving multitude:

• John 21:6
  • and he said unto them cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find they cast therefore and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes

Three biblical examples involve the word press, which had the meaning ‘crowd’ or ‘multitude of people’ in Early Modern English:

• Mark 2:4
  • and when they could not come nigh unto him for the press they uncovered the roof where he was
• Luke 8:19
  • then came to him his mother and his brethren and could not come at him for the press
• Luke 19:3
  • and he sought to see Jesus who he was and could not for the press because he was little of stature

The Oxford English Dictionary lists this use under definition 22 of the preposition for. In other words, 3 Nephi 17:10 states that although everyone was able to come forth and bow down before Jesus, there were limits to how many could kiss his feet (due to the size of the crowd). The critical text will retain the preposition for in the phrase “for the multitude” since it works textually.