Introduction

The first two examples below were shared by Bill Davis on December 20 and 21 of 2021.

Bill discussed the Alma 10:51 example in some depth.

Amulek: “I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power”

Did you catch that? The switch from Amulek saying “I never had known” to saying “I mistake, for I have seen.”

It’s not a honing or restatement of meaning, but rather a complete reversal from the first claim to the second claim.

That’s what happens when the mouth is running faster than the mind (we all have that problem now and again, right?).

But this is important to note: This isn’t the type of mistake that a person makes who is engraving words on a metal plate. It’s a lot of extra and unnecessary words, and a lot of extra work.

This also isn’t the type of mistake that a person leaves in a text, when revising the draft of a work. In other words, it’s not “refined” (mechanically or, for that matter, stylistically).

This is, however, the type of mistake and immediate self-correction and oral revision that occurs in spoken (dictated) scenarios.

What this tells us: When Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Mormon, he was involved in the process as an active contributor to the language of the text.

Alma 10:51 “I mistake”

Amulek: “…I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power.

[pause; recognition that a mistake was made]

I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power …”

Alma 52:6 “truly he was preparing”

But he [Teancum] kept his men round about, as if making preparations for war [pretending];

[pause; decision to revise]

yea, and truly he was preparing [not pretending] to defend himself against them, by casting up walls round about and preparing places of resort.

Alma 24:19 “buried their weapons of peace”1

… and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace,

[revise]

or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.

  1. Mentioned by Ashely Couch in a commenton Bill’s December 21st post. ↩