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"and they answered them nothing" (Alma 14:18)

In the simplest terms, a conjunction such as and connects clauses or sentences, while a disjunctive conjunction (or disjunctive) such as but disconnects them or signals a contrast. In Biblical Hebrew the letter waw may serve as either a conjunction or as a disjunctive, depending on the context.[1] In the great majority of instances, translators render waw as “and,” but also sometimes as “but.” For example, in the proverb “A wise son maketh a glad father: but (waw) a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother” (Proverbs 10:1), the term waw is translated with the disjunctive but because to contrast a “wise son” and a “foolish son.”

Interestingly, sometimes in the Book of Mormon and is used where but is expected.[2] Such examples are indicative of a literal translation from a Hebrew-like text, as opposed to a smooth, idiomatic translation into English. Here are two examples:

There is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord: and that which is evil cometh from the devil. (Omni 1:25)

Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence. (2 Nephi 4:4)

In both cases, but would read more naturally than and in conventional English.

The earliest text of the Book of Mormon has a great number of instances that read and where but is expected.[3] Here are two examples:

After Alma and Amulek were cast into prison, several men came to interrogate them, “and they questioned them about many words, and they answered them nothing” (Alma 14:18). That and was changed to but in the 1830 edition: “And they questioned them about many words, but they answered them nothing.”

The second example reads, “There were no contentions nor wars in the land of Zarahemla; and the people were afflicted” (Alma 4:1–2). Again, the and was changed to but in later editions: “There were no contentions nor wars in the land of Zarahemla; but the people were afflicted.”

Notes

[1] For a grammatical exploration of and, serving as either a conjunction or a disjunction, examine Waltke and O’Connor, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, 648–655; Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, 162–65; and Williams, Williams’ Hebrew Syntax, 153.

[2] See Bokovoy and Tvedtnes, Testaments, 221–22.

[3] See the analysis and other examples in Skousen, History of the Text of the Book of Mormon: Part 1, 192–95.