“Corihor Was Thirty and Two Years Old He Rebelled Against His Father”

Brant Gardner

Corihor’s name does not appear in the king-list because he rebelled against the legitimate ruler. His exile to Nehor is a reminder of a name infamous in Nephite history. His own name is obviously the same as the later infamous Korihor. (See Alma 30:12 and “Excursus: Religion of the Nehors,” following Alma 1 for Korihor.) While Moroni relates that Corihor “drew away many people,” that cannot be the whole story. The establishment of a new city that almost immediately became more powerful than the original suggests omitted history. Those omissions are not surprising. Ether is focused on Jared’s descendants to the exclusion of almost everything else that was happening at the time—hence, his neglect to supply the brother of Jared’s name. I hypothesize that Corihor took his followers and moved to an already-established city; their combined strength would have been ample to attack his father.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6

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