Ether 11:21 Textual Variants

Here in Ether 11:21, the relative pronoun which originally stood for the whole prepositional phrase “after the manner”. Thus the relative clause, it would appear, is equivalent to stating that “he brought their fathers after this manner”. The 1920 LDS edition inserted the preposition by

in front of the which, thus making the following relative clause stand for something like “he brought their fathers by this manner”.

Elsewhere in the text, however, there are no examples of by used with manner (as in a hypothetical example such as “by this manner doth the Lord shew …”). But there are five more examples of “after the manner” followed by a relative clause headed by which:

• 1 Nephi 17:8
  • thou shalt construct a ship after the manner which I shall shew thee
• 1 Nephi 17:9
  • whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shewn unto me
• 1 Nephi 18:2
  • now I Nephi did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men
• 1 Nephi 18:2
  • but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shewn unto me
• Ether 2:16
  • the brother of Jared did go to work and also his brethren and built barges after the manner which they had built according to the instructions of the Lord

In the first four examples, the antecedent for the relative pronoun which is the noun manner. But in the last example, as in Ether 11:21, the antecedent for the which appears to be the whole prepositional phrase, “after the manner”. In neither Ether 2:16 nor Ether 11:21 does the earliest text have a preposition such as by before the which.

The 1920 editing here in Ether 11:21 created in the LDS text a unique reading, “by the manner”. In the King James Bible, there is one instance of the phrase “by manner”, namely, by any manner in Leviticus 20:25: “and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast or by fowl or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground”. Normally the King James text uses the expression “after manner” (such as 16 of “after this manner”). Ultimately, the original reading in Ether 11:21 is not all that difficult to understand. The critical text will therefore restore the earliest reading in this passage, “after the manner which he brought their fathers”.

It should also be recalled that the Book of Mormon allows for constructions like “by his power … which he brought their fathers” (that is, without a repetition of the preposition by right before the relative pronoun which). As discussed under Helaman 13:22, the preposition in is not repeated in similar constructions:

• 2 Nephi 2:22 (not “in the same state in which they were”)
  • and all things which were created must have remained in the same state which they were
• Helaman 13:22 (not “in the things in which he hath blessed you”)
  • ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things which he hath blessed you
• Ether 13:15 (not “in that same year in which he was cast out”)
  • and it came to pass that in that same year which he was cast out from among the people there began to be a great war among the people

For further discussion of this construction, see under Helaman 13:22 as well as in the addenda at the end of this part of volume 4 (there under 2 Nephi 2:22).