Jacob 5:76 Textual Variants

When copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟, Oliver Cowdery initially omitted the modal verb will. Almost immediately he supralinearly inserted the will (the level of ink flow is unchanged). He placed the will before the subject pronoun I, although it would have also been possible to insert it after the I (that is, “for a long time I will lay up of the fruit of my vineyard”). Either the inverted or noninverted word order is possible after a clause-initial adverbial phrase such as “for a long time”. For further discussion regarding the word order of the auxiliary verb will after an initial adverbial phrase, see under 2 Nephi 25:16 (which discusses the placement of the will in “then at that time the day will come”).

We should also consider the possibility that the original text here in Jacob 5:76 had no modal verb—that is, it is possible that the text here read in the simple present tense as “for a long time I lay up of the fruit of my vineyard”. But such present-tense usage would be completely foreign to the narrative nature of the olive tree allegory. In most instances the verb lay up takes some kind of modal in Jacob 5:

• Jacob 5:13 that I may lay up fruit thereof
• Jacob 5:18 I shall lay up much fruit
• Jacob 5:18 the fruit thereof I shall lay up
• Jacob 5:19 that I may lay up of the fruit thereof
• Jacob 5:27 that thou canst lay it up
• Jacob 5:29 I must lay up fruit
• Jacob 5:71 the fruit which I shall lay up
• Jacob 5:76 I will lay up unto mine own self of the fruit

There are also examples where lay up takes the perfect auxiliary have:

• Jacob 5:31 I have laid up unto myself against the season much fruit
• Jacob 5:46 and these I had hope to preserve to have laid up fruit thereof

There are also two instances of the verb lay up in the imperative:

• Jacob 5:20 take of the fruit thereof and lay it up
• Jacob 5:23 therefore gather it and lay it up

But there are no examples of lay up in the simple present or simple past tenses (such as “I lay up fruit unto myself” or “I laid up fruit unto myself”). Such usage would probably have sounded strange in this narrative-based allegory. A similar argument was made regarding the oddity of I take in the earliest extant reading for Jacob 5:8 (“I take away many of these young and tender branches”). The second example of lay up in verse 76 provides strong support for the modal verb will that was supralinearly inserted in the first example: both examples repeat the same phrases but in a different order:

FIRST OCCURRENCE SECOND OCCURRENCE

for behold wherefore

for a long time (bª) I will lay up

will I lay up (dª) unto mine own self

of the fruit of my vineyard (cª) of the fruit

unto mine own self (aª) for a long time

Since the supralinear will in the first example was inserted almost immediately, we can safely assume that it represents the original text in Jacob 5:76.