3 Nephi 18:3 Textual Variants

One wonders here if the pronoun it might have been accidentally dropped after the verb brake. When we consider all the Book of Mormon passages that describe the distribution of the sacrament (including this one), we find three passages in the original text where there is no direct object after the transitive verb give, in addition to the one case here in 3 Nephi 18:3 where the direct object for the verb break is also lacking (in the following list, I represent each of these missing direct objects as NULL):

• 3 Nephi 18:3 (bread, NULL, it, NULL)
  • he took of the bread and brake and blessed it and he gave unto the disciples
• 3 Nephi 18:5 (bread, it, it )
  • and to him will I give power that he shall break bread and bless it and give it unto the people of my church
• 3 Nephi 18:6 (bread, it, it)
  • even as I have broken bread and blessed it and gave it unto you
• 3 Nephi 20:3 (bread, it, NULL)
  • and it came to pass that he brake bread again and blessed it and gave to the disciples to eat
• 3 Nephi 20:4–5 (bread, NULL, NULL)
  • he commanded them that they should break bread and give unto the multitude and when they had given unto the multitude …
• 3 Nephi 26:13 (bread, it, it)
  • and after that he did shew himself unto them oft and did break bread oft and bless it and give it unto them

There is evidence elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text that the it after the verb give is optional; for discussion, see under Alma 55:31.

When we consider similar passages in the King James Bible, we find the same kind of variation, especially when we note that in the English translation the it is in italics, which means that the it is missing in the Greek original (in the following, each of these cases is represented as it/0):

• Matthew 26:26 (bread, it/0, it/0, it/0)
  • and as they were eating
    Jesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the disciples
• Mark 14:22 (bread, NULL, it/0, NULL)
  • and as they did eat
    Jesus took bread and blessed and brake it and gave to them
• Luke 22:19 (bread, it/0, NULL)
  • and he took bread
    and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them
• Luke 24:30 (bread, it/0, NULL, NULL)
  • and it came to pass as he sat at meat with them he took bread and blessed it and brake and gave to them
• John 21:13 (bread, NULL)
  • Jesus then cometh and taketh breadand giveth them and fish likewise
• Acts 27:35 (bread, it/0)
  • and when he had thus spoken he took bread and gave thanks to God in presence of them all and when he had broken it he began to eat

(The last three New Testament examples, it should be noted, do not involve the Lord’s supper. And in the last one, Paul is the agent, not Jesus.) In the Greek original, the direct object pronoun it never appears in these verbal conjuncts. In the King James Bible, we get a mixture: sometimes the it is supplied, sometimes not. Most important of all, there is one case in the King James text where the it is lacking after the verb break (in Luke 24:30). The pattern of variation in both the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon argues that the pronoun it is intentionally missing here in 3 Nephi 18:3. The same holds for the it that is frequently missing after the verb give in these Book of Mormon passages. The critical text will therefore follow the earliest reading with respect to these potential instances of the direct object pronoun it. Interestingly, there is one case involving the verb give (in 3 Nephi 20:4) where the it was supplied in the 1840 edition (see under 3 Nephi 20:3–5 for discussion).

It is also worth noting here that in the Gospel accounts Jesus blesses the bread (or gives thanks) before breaking it, but in the Book of Mormon he does the opposite: he breaks the bread first, then blesses it (just as the priests do in the LDS church today).