How should we read the Book of Mormon’s skin-color passages?

2 Nephi says the Lamanites were cut off from the Lord’s presence and cursed because of iniquity, then describes a skin of blackness. 3 Nephi says converted Lamanites were united with the Nephites, had the curse taken away, and their skin became white. The passages use explicit skin-color language.

You name the wording directly and acknowledge its racialized meaning and history instead of smoothing it over.

The passages only use “black” and “white” as spiritual metaphors and never describe skin.

Both passages explicitly refer to skin. A symbolic or covenantal interpretation must still account for that wording.

The documented change is in 2 Nephi 30:6: “white and delightsome” became “pure and delightsome.” Later editions based on the 1837 text kept “white” until the 1981 edition restored the 1840 reading. That revision did not change the current wording of 2 Nephi 5:21 or 3 Nephi 2:15.

You keep the textual correction tied to 2 Nephi 30:6 and distinguish it from the other passages, which remain in the current text.

The 1840 edition changed every Book of Mormon reference to black or white skin, so the other passages were corrected too.

The documented revision concerns 2 Nephi 30:6. The current text still contains the wording in 2 Nephi 5:21 and 3 Nephi 2:15.

The Church distinguishes separation from God from the mark described in the story. It leaves the nature of the mark open and says it has no application to people today or to the former priesthood and temple restriction.

You describe the Church’s present interpretation and the limits it places on applying the account.

The Church’s explanation settles the historical question by identifying the mark as clothing.

The Church says the nature and appearance of the mark are uncertain. A garment reading is a proposal that can be compared with the verses.