Paths of righteousness and wisdom

Having just finished Margaret Barker's "Temple Theology", I am still in ancient temple mode. One of the characteristics of this older first temple tradition (pre-deuteronomic reform) was the belief in a female deity called "wisdom". This seems to have been a tradition that Lehi and his family took with them to the promised land. We have touched upon it on this blog before, see here. Mosiah 8:20 is also a good example

how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them!

Another backdrop for this post is the concept of walking on a path, which has also been posted about a lot before and has rarely to do with moving one's feet and usually something to do with entering into and keeping covenants. The ancient temple (and I would even argue the modern temple) respresents this path from a scattered state in the wilderness through covenants and a gradual ascent to the holy of holies in unity. 

With this in mind, I want to discuss the mention of paths in the Book of Mormon. Often, these paths are described as "his paths" and they are strait or made straight. On a few occasions, these paths are the paths of a virtue. In those cases they are either the paths of righteousness or wisdom. 

Paths of righteousness (tsedeq)

The Hebrew word, tsedeq, is typically translated into 'righteousness' and is a masculine word (all Hebrew words have one of two genders). It is closely associated with God. He epitomizes or personifies righteousness. For instance, we can read in Jeremiah 23:6

In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

So in one sense, when we are asked to walk in the paths of righteousness, we are asked to walk in his paths. Like in Psalm 23:3

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

The path of righteousness is also found in the Book of Mormon

And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness. (1 Nephi 16:5)

For I perceive that ye are in the paths of righteousness; I perceive that ye are in the path which leads to the kingdom of God; yea, I perceive that ye are making his paths straight. (Alma 7:19)

From Alma's statement we can infer that the paths of righteousness are the path of God (His paths) and also the path that leads to God.

Wisdom's paths (chokmah)

The Hebrew word for wisdom is 'chokmah' and is a feminine noun. Much of the wisdom tradition is shown in the Book of Proverbs, although I suspect that it was more prevalent in other parts of the Old Testament writings too before it went "through the hands of the great and abominable church". Proverbs 8 is all about this. But we will consider an example from Proverbs 4, where there is also talk of paths.

7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
11 I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.

Even though wisdom referred to as a female in these verses, one may argue that wisdom is introduced as a "thing" in verse 7, which is not in line with the image of a female deity. But looking into this further, it gets interesting. There is no Hebrew word equivalent of the English "thing" in this verse. It is just part of the translation of the Hebrew, "reshith", to make the text work in English. Interestingly, this also happens to be the very first word of the Bible or Torah. "In the beginning (reshith) God created the heavens and the earth". It's the Hebrew word for beginning, chief, first. I'm no Hebrew expert but can easily imagine that Proverbs 4:7 could as well be translated as "in the beginning was wisdom". This is also consistent with Proverbs 8:23-30, where Wisdom speaks and explains that she was there at the creation.

Compare that with the words of Gerald Schroeder, Israeli physicist and orthodox Jew, discussing Genesis 1:1

The opening word, usually translated as ‘in the beginning,’ is Be’reasheet. Be’reasheet can mean ‘in the beginning of,’ but not ‘in the beginning.’ The difficulty with the preposition ‘of’ is that its object is absent from the sentence; thus the King James translation merely drops it. But the 2100-year-old Jerusalem translation of Genesis into Aramaic takes a different approach, realizing that Be’reasheet is a compound word: the prefix Be’, ‘with,’ and reasheet, a ‘first wisdom.’ The Aramaic translation is thus ‘With wisdom God created the heavens and the earth.’ 

This wisdom that was with God in the beginning at the creation has her "way", the "way of wisdom" as we read in Proverbs 4:11. Again, this is something we find in the Book of Mormon too.

ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom’s paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved (Mosiah 2:36)

Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s paths! (Helaman 12:5)

Conclusion

When paths in the Book of Mormon are coupled with a virtue, it is either righteousness or wisdom. Based on the evidence presented in this post, they can be interpreted as the masculine and feminine part of God(head). Our heavenly parents are inviting us back to their presence. To get there we must walk on their path.

As mentioned in another recent post, the ancient temple was patterned after the six days of creation. Walking "the path" in the temple was a progression through the days of creation backwards until one reached the light created on the first day in the holy of holies in unity with "righteousness" and "wisdom", our heavenly parents.