After abjuring his people to follow in their current path, Benjamin reminds them to take care lest the contentions rise again. Once again we are not told specifically what those contentions were, but since Benjamin links the contentions to the “evil spirit” we may continue to assume that they dealt with religion (and since religion was intimately associated with rulership, they dealt also with politics).
We do not have the text wherein Mosiah I taught about the “evil spirit.” Of course this may not have been a single occasion, but rather a consistent teaching. Why does Benjamin specifically relate the idea of the “evil spirit” being taught to them by Mosiah I? He does not say, but we may speculate. Mosiah I is a Nephite king in a Zarahemlaite city – a city which had “lost its religion”, meaning that it was no longer the Old Testament religion, but probably something closer to the Mesoamerican models around them. Therefore, it is possible that this specific “evil spirit” was a new conception to the people of Zarahemla, and it needed to be taught for them to understand.
It has been suggested that the Mesoamerican pantheon might have a counterpart to Satan. In a U.A.S. Newsletter, Dee F. Green suggested Tezacatlipoca as a Satan figure, primarily because he is seen in opposition to Quetzalcoatl, whom Green sees as a Savior figure (Green, Dee F. “A Counterpart of Satan in the Mesoamerican Pantheon.” U.A.S Newsletter 60.50). While this issue is much too complex to encapsulate, a very basic point must be made that Mesoamerican deities are not clearly good nor evil. Each can be both, and in the late Aztec mythology from which the Quetzalcoatl/Tezcatlipoca tales derive, we can find both good and ill associated with each. The Maya deities appear to exhibit this same tendency, so it is quite likely that there was no Mesoamerican deity upon which Mosiah I could model the “evil spirit.” He was teaching that concept precisely because it was not commonly understood among the more acculturated Zarahemlaites.
Vocabulary: The term “list” should be read as “inclination” rather than “listen.” (Coutts, Alison V.P., et al. “Complete Text of Benjamin’s Speech with Notes and Comments.” In: King Benjamin’s Speech. FARMS, 1998 p. 535).