Coriantumr1 was the last Jaredite king. He had lived for a few months in Zarahemla with the Mulekites (Omni 1:21). Coriantumr2 therefore has a Jaredite name. It is not textually surprising that a Nephite dissenter would bear a name inherited from the Jaredites. Jaredite civilization ended in apostasy and secret combinations, as Mormon explains it. Jaredite influence on the Mulekites no doubt influenced their loss of language and religion. (See commentary accompanying Omni 1:17.) This Jaredite tradition among the Nephites is at least representative if not causative of the cultural tensions leading to conflict and rebellion in the land of Zarahemla.
Redaction: As Mormon begins this story of military conflict, he clearly identifies its leader as a Nephite dissenter. One of Mormon’s themes is the particular perniciousness of internal divisions among the Nephites. Mormon makes much of the fact that not only the internal contentions, but also the external wars, were fomented by dissenters. He emphasizes the foundational promise of the Nephites: Yahweh’s protection if they were righteous. Mormon does not quote the promise at every opportunity, but he structures his narrative to show that the Nephites’ difficulties are their own fault. Their wars and contentions come from their own collective faithlessness. Even though some remain true to Nephite ideals, a significant portion of society rejects the faith, leading directly to the wars and contentions. Mormon highlights this theme here in Helaman’s narrative; but it would have been painfully present to him as he wrote, for he was seeing the very same thing. As Mormon watches his people’s destruction because of their collective loss of faith, he writes of an earlier period in which the identical tendencies had occurred with the same results.
This section of Mormon’s narrative sets up the contrast between the wars and contentions stemming from Nephite apostates and the faithful who remained after the destructions to meet their Atoning Messiah. The Messiah’s appearance ushers in a long period of peace that further proves the validity of that foundational promise.