How Great Things

The discussion should not be about what great things the Lord has done but how great things the Lord has done. This is the terminology that is found in the Book of Mormon. What doesn’t matter anywhere near as much as how. What is essentially an exercise in voyeurism. How is an exercise in what one needs to do and how one comes about linking to, and participating in, what ultimately is the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.¹ “The archaic expression how great things is found in the King James Bible (six times), as in Mark 5:19 KJV (and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee [Mark 2:24]). In modern English, of course, we expect what great things, which is how Joseph Smith edited the title page for the 1837 edition. He made a similar change a little later: Unlike the change in the title page, Joseph directly marked this particular change in the printer’s manuscript. In his later editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph discontinued making this change, thus leaving the remaining six occurrences of how great things unchanged in the text of the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 1:1; Mosiah 11:26; Alma 29:20; Ether 1:19; and twice in Ether 3:8).”²