The Sun/Son of Righteousness

A well-know verse in Malachi in the last chapter of the Old Testament reads

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

The "Sun of righteousness" is a unique reading in the entire Bible. This verse is also quoted in the Book of Mormon by Jesus himself in 3 Nephi 25:2, but with "Son of righteousness" rather than "sun". I have known this for a while but decided to explore this curious little difference further.

Since this expression is unique in the Bible, it is also discussed in Christian and Jewish academic circles. In Hebrew, Sun of Righteousness is שֶׁ֣מֶשׁ צְדָקָ֔ה or shemesh tsedâqâh. From this article I learned that

The Hebrew word shemesh, meaning sun, comes from an unused root meaning to be brilliant. So when we combine that root with the Hebrew word esh, meaning fire, burning, fiery, flaming, hot, we get the word shem-esh, meaning literally "brilliant fire" or sun.

Interestingly, the root word shem also has various meanings like name, famous, or renown. Since everyone in the world who has ever lived has seen the sun and knows the sun, which God gave to govern the day, we may also say that shem-esh could mean the "famous fire" or the "world-renowned fire."

This makes a lot of sense when we read the Malachi verse in context. The verse before talks about the wicked burning as stubble.  Since the Hebrew word for sun also is connected to fire, Malachi is talking about two kinds of fire here. One that will burn the wicked and another that will give light and healing to the righteous. Previous blog posts about these two kinds of fire are found here and here. Both fire in general and the sun in particular are symbols for God in the Old Testament.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield (Psalms 84:11)

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24)

At least for christians, the common interpretation of "Sun of righteousness" in Malachi is Christ. After all, he is described as someone who will arise. The KJV Bible even capitalizes Sun, because it is seen as a title for the Lord. So if this makes sense, why does the Book of Mormon change it to "Son of righteousness"? Of course, the Book of Mormon reading is an even more obvious reference to Christ. Especially due to the fact that this expression is found three times in the Book of Mormon and the other two that are not the Malachi quote are clear references to Christ.

But the Son of Righteousness shall appear unto them; and he shall heal them, and they shall have peace with him, until three generations shall have passed away, and many of the fourth generation shall have passed away in righteousness. (2 Nephi 26:9)

This is obviously a prophecy of Christ appearing to the Nephites. The third one is found in the Book of Ether:

And after he had anointed Coriantum to reign in his stead he lived four years, and he saw peace in the land; yea, and he even saw the Son of Righteousness, and did rejoice and glory in his day; and he died in peace. (Ether 9:22)

This is perhaps less obvious than the previous example but obvious enough. If this is not referring to Christ, then who?

But there is no official explanation for the difference, sun/son, in the Bible and the Book of Mormon so I will just present the possibilities.

Wrong Bible translation

The Hebrew, shemesh (sun) is very close to shamash (servant). This small change could happen over the years copying and re-copying the text and it would originally read "servant of righteousness". However, with this interpretation, the grammar is wrong too, which means that someone must have adjusted the grammar to fit sun instead of correcting the mistake. So it seems like a stretch and besides, "servant" is still not "son".

Error in the Book of Mormon

Royal Skousen who has dealt with textual variants in the Book of Mormon more than anyone believes it is an error. His reasoning is that sun and son are homophones in English, so it is an easy mistake to make, a mistake in the Bible is not as reasonable and the connection between this Book of Mormon expression and the one in Malachi is strong. 

Skousen may very well be right. What makes me unsure is that Joseph and Oliver would have to make the same mistake three times. Unfortunately, the original manuscript is not extant for any of the three passages. All we see is "son" in the printer's manuscript. 

The difference was intentional

At least I would like to consider the only other possibility, that Skousen is wrong about this and the difference son/sun was intentional. Especially in the Ether passage that is completely independent of Malachi, I think son works better than sun. If "Sun of Righteousness" were a common biblical title, it would make more sense, but the Jaredite king getting a personal visitation from the Savior is a very different setting from what we read in that particular Malachi verse. Of course, Moroni, who abridged the Jaredite record, knew this Malachi-passage from 3 Nephi, but it is still a somewhat odd connection to make. When there are so many names and titles for the Savior, why would Moroni choose this unique and particular one from Malachi? 

What complicates the matter further is that the other Book of Mormon example in 2 Nephi 26:9, does show a connection to Malachi beyond this particular expression. In 2 Nephi, he goes on to say that "he shall heal them". In Malachi he arises with "healing in his wings". Also, in the previous chapter, 2 Nephi 25:12-13, "the Only Begotten of the Father… shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings". 

If the difference was intentional, was it the Book of Mormon prophets using the word son in their language, (presumably son and sun in reformed Eqyptian were much more different than in English)?  Or was it a creative translation of the English text revealed to Joseph Smith? What would be the reason for the deviation? We can only speculate at this point.


But then there is another point: I have previously argued that these apparent connections to Malachi in fact are connections to the prophet, Zenos. If Zenos is the original source of the "Sun/son of righteousness", then both Malachi and the Book of Mormon prophets are using his phrase, perhaps in slightly different ways since it ends up differently in Hebrew and English. In that case, the process where something might get lost in translation or copying of manuscripts is more complex.

We are not going to get to the bottom of this. Whether it is Sun or Son of Righteousness, it is a beautiful title for the Savior. He arose with healing in his wings on this very day, Easter Sunday, and offers healing from both physical and spiritual death.

A final note about wings: We know the "Son" does not have wings. The sun doesn't either. The Hebrew word for wings can also mean edge but most biblical scholars understand the wings of the sun to mean rays. This is how it works for the sun analogy. However, in the Book of Mormon, the sun as symbol of the divine is not common. To my knowledge, the Book of Mormon does not contain any passage like the one I quoted in Psalms ("God is a sun…"). But it does contain this passage

O ye people of these great cities which have fallen, who are descendants of Jacob, yea, who are of the house of Israel, how oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and have nourished you. (3 Nephi 10:4)

Here, Christ is a hen with wings in his own analogy. In the previous chapter he is offering to heal the people he is speaking to (see 3 Nephi 9:13). Healing, wings... I don't know if there is an intentional connection to the Son of Righteousness but this is right before he visits the Nephites, just like Nephi prophecied in 2 Nephi 25-26, where this expression was used. In this context, Son of Righteousness with healing in his wings perhaps works better than Sun of Righteousness with healing in its rays.

This was a long post with very few actual answers to the questions posed, but a fun learning process nonetheless, at least for me. I appreciate any comment with further thoughts or insight to this.