There are also a large number of smaller fragments covering various other parts of the text, including significant portions from 2 Nephi 4 through Enos 1, Alma 10–13, Helaman 13 through 3 Nephi 4, and Ether 3–15. All of this section is in Oliver Cowdery’s hand except for twenty-eight words in Joseph Smith’s hand (in Alma 45:22). The larger portion of O that is extant covers most of the text from Alma 22 through Helaman 3, although no leaf there is fully extant. In addition to Oliver Cowdery, there are two unidentified scribes (probably Whitmers) for this part of the text covering the small plates of Nephi, with Oliver (designated as scribe 1 of O) responsible for almost half of the extant portions for the first 48 pages of manuscript: These portions were apparently written down at the Whitmer home near the end of the translation (in June 1829). The first part of the text (1 Nephi and the beginning of 2 Nephi) is mostly extant. In 1841 Joseph Smith placed O in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House when the manuscript was removed by Louis Bidamon in 1882, most of it had been destroyed by mold and water. Today only about 28 percent of O is extant (I exclude the lost 116 pages from this calculation) 25 of the 28 percent is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For most of the text, the 1830 edition was set from P, although there is firm evidence that from Helaman 13:17 through the end of Mormon the text was set from O rather than P. Having lost the first 116 pages of O, Joseph decided that the original should not be taken to the printer, so he had the scribes produce a copy called the printer’s manuscript (P). The first is the original manuscript (O), which is the manuscript that the scribes wrote down as Joseph Smith dictated the text. There are two manuscripts for the text of the Book of Mormon. Indirect evidence suggests that Oliver helped with the extensive grammatical editing for the 1837 edition. ![]() A fourth aspect, only briefly mentioned here, was Oliver’s work on the printing of the second edition the Book of Mormon, in Kirtland, Ohio (published in 1837) the preface to that edition mentions that Oliver helped Joseph in comparing the 1830 edition against the manuscripts. There are three aspects to his work, with him acting as (1) the main scribe for Joseph Smith in taking down Joseph’s dictation of the text, (2) the main copyist for producing the copy text for the 1830 printer, and (3) an assistant in various tasks involved in the printing of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. In this chapter I discuss Oliver Cowdery’s role in the early transmission of the English-language text of the Book of Mormon. Hawkinson photograph courtesy of the Wilford Wood family.) John Gilbert, the compositor for the 1830 edition, added punctuation to this portion of the manuscript prior to typesetting. ![]() From Helaman 13:17 to the end of Mormon, the 1830 edition was set from the original manuscript, not the printer's manuscript. Helaman 15:9-14, from the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, in the hand of Oliver Cowdery. Royal Skousen is a professor of linguistics and English language at BYU.
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