Korihor makes a two-part confession. First, he admits the deception that Alma had already perceived. Korihor had, in fact, known of Yahweh and lied when he denied Yahweh’s existence, just as Alma had said. Second, and more, he claims that the devil, disguised as an angel, misled him. This piece of information has both a social and a literary significance.
Literature: Korihor is not only Anti-Christ but he is here Anti-Alma. I have already pointed out the structural juxtaposition of Korihor’s mission to the successful mission of Mosiah’s sons. (See commentary accompanying Alma 30:23.) At this point, the literary parallelism shifts away from Mosiah’s sons to Alma. Both Alma and Korihor were believers in something, both had received an angelic visitation, both were converted by that experience, and both preached the gospel learned in that experience. Korihor and Alma are too similar to be accidental. They have only one fundamental difference: Alma is converted to truth and Korihor to error. That conclusion is powerfully underlined in Korihor’s curse because of his continued demand for a sign.
Culture: How could Korihor have mistaken a devil for an angel? This question is important in the Mesoamerican context. We have clear contemporary understandings for both terms, but they may not have been the original Nephite terms or the original Nephite meanings. The Spaniards consistently described native gods as devils because anything except the Christian God was, by definition, not only false but a devil. Mesoamerica had many other gods, but the polarized Christian language in which Joseph translated the plates could have easily replicated the Spanish idea that native (false) gods were devils.
Like most polytheistic systems, Mesoamerica assumed the presence and engagement of numerous gods. Maya bloodletting rites were a mechanism by which one might communicate with the gods and materialize them into this world. In the context of a similar worldview in which gods appeared in vision, Korihor may well have undergone a religious rite that resulted in a hallucination or vision in which he saw a god—or, in this case, an angel. There is no indication that Korihor was a king, for whom the materialization of the gods is best attested, but he may have been a priest.