Helaman 5:35
1830 Edition
Now there was one among them who was a Nephite by birth, who had once belonged to the church of God, but had dissented from them.
Changes
Simple English
There was one person among them who was born a Nephite. He had once belonged to God’s church but had left it.
Paraphrase
Among them was a man who’d been born a Nephite. He’d once belonged to the church of God but had left it.
Notes
"The preface to the King James Bible (prepared for the 1611 printing) uses certain words which do not appear in the Bible, such as 'clouds of darkness' and 'overshadowed.' This preface is still printed in the KJV Bibles today:
'clouds of darkness would so have overshadowed this Land, that men should have been in doubt which way they were to walk... the appearance of Your Majesty, as of the Sun in his strength, instantly dispelled those supposed and surmised mists...'
Smith repeated these words over and over again in the book of Helaman:
'And it came to pass that they were overshadowed with a cloud of darkness... behold the cloud of darkness, which had overshadowed them, did not disperse... the Lamanites could not flee because of the cloud of darkness which did overshadow them... he saw through the cloud of darkness... the Lamanites said unto him: What shall we do, that this cloud of darkness maybe removed from overshadowing us? And Aminadab said... You must repent.... and when you shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you... the cloud of darkness was dispersed. And it came to pass that when they cast their eyes about, and saw that the cloud of darkness was dispersed from overshadowing them, behold, they saw that they were encircled about... by a pillar of fire.' (Helaman 5:28, 31, 34, 36, 40-43).
After this repetitious section of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith never used the words 'cloud of darkness' again." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 27.