Abstract: A brief outline of the saga of Korihor, the Anti-Christ, is provided along with a discussion of his affinities with other Book of Mormon anti-Christs, including those in the order of Nehors. Literary allusions suggesting Korihor as a foil to the king of the Lamanites are examined. Evidence of a schism among the order of Nehors leading to violence is discussed. Korihor’s unusual death is examined within the context of the theme of crushing the serpent from the stories of Adam, Eve, and Cain.


The brash materialism of Korihor during his trial as he argues against the existence of prophecy, sin, and even basic morality mark him as one of the most modern-sounding antagonists in the Book of Mormon. His arguments that “every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime” and “that when a man was dead, that was the end thereof” (Alma 30:17–18) would be at home on many college campuses worldwide. Like many of the other antagonists in the Book of Mormon, his origins, motivations, and purposes are all rather murky. John Welch notes:
The text gives no indication whatever of his ethnic or tribal origin, his city or land of residence, or his religious or political affiliations. All these omissions cannot be accidental. Indeed, the text wants readers to see Korihor as an isolated individual defying the foundation of collective responsibility that undergirded the concepts of justice, ethics, prosperity, and well-being in Nephite and Israelite societies. In the Book [Page 224]of Mormon array of typologies, Korihor represents the radical individual thinker, detached from community and unconcerned about the consequences of his ideas, who is bound and determined above all to speak his mind. Speech was his stock-in-trade.1
Korihor challenges the basis of legitimacy of both the Nephite legal system and the Christian church, but his swift rise in the text is followed by an equally swift fall. The end of Korihor has provoked much speculation, for it is difficult to understand what circumstances might have led to him getting trampled “until he was dead” (Alma 30:59). After a brief discussion of some of the information that can be gleaned about Korihor, we will see that Korihor was viewed by the authors of the Book of Mormon as a villain stamped in the mold of Cain, and that his eventual end is as predictable as that of any of the biblical antagonists who hearken to the whisperings of that old serpent, the devil.
The Mission and Life of Korihor
In his efforts to undermine the foundations of the Nephite government and religion, Korihor seems to be attempting to advance the agenda of either the Nehors or the Zoramites. The text tells us that Nehor was executed based on the logic that, “were priestcraft to be enforced among this people it would prove their entire destruction” (Alma 1:12). Amlici, a follower of Nehor, later alarmed the Christian Nephites because “it was his intent to destroy the church of God” (Alma 2:4), and “the Nephites greatly feared that the Zoramites would enter into a correspondence with the Lamanites, and that it would be the means of great loss on the part of the Nephites” (Alma 31:4). These warnings suggest that the religious and political turmoil swirling through the Nephite polity during the timeframe in question were of a sort that could bring about their entire destruction. Korihor seems, in turn, to have been actively promoting the very ideas that the Christian Nephite leaders feared. Alma had seen firsthand what could happen when the ideas propounded by the Nehors propagated freely among his people, which is perhaps why later on he worked so hard and enlisted ...