“Alma 10:51 [actually Alma 10:5] // Context: Amulek speaking to the people of Ammonihah

“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.”

William Davis, FB Post – 20 December 2021