I sometimes read the words of skeptics of the Book of Mormon regarding purported changes since the original 1830 printing, although I do not often purposefully look for objections to our LDS scriptures. Comparing the original version to the 1986 edition reveals that the critics’ declarations about “thousands” of changes are misleading. The vast majority of changes have been in spelling, punctuation, and general English improvement, including eliminating a number of unnecessary “it came to pass” phrases that are awkward in English but probably normal in Hebrew.

I found an online source for the 1830 Book of Mormon. I chose page 200 at random, looking at the first complete paragraph on that digitized-page. Compare it with the 1986 version (Mosiah 19:1-3).

1830 edition:

And it came to pass that the army of the king returned, having searched in vain for the people of the Lord. And now behold, the forces of the king were small, having been reduced, and there began to be a division among the remainder of the people.

1986 edition (verses 1-2):

Identical to the above, including punctuation.

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1830 edition:

And the lesser part began to breathe out threatnings against the king, and there began to be a great contention among them.

1986 edition (verse 3):

Identical to the above, except that the 19th-century spelling “threatnings” is now spelled “threatenings.”

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Similar passages in the Book of Mormon show similar results, when comparing the original printing with the modern editions. There have been a very few other changes which can be explained but nothing that I know of that would lead any objective person to suspect that they might be evidence for covering up any non-Divine origin.

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