Belief as the gate to "wisdom's path"

Moses 1:31-32 stood out to me recently:

31 And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me.

32 And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth.

"These things" in verse 31 refers to the earth and its inhabitants (see verses 27 and 28).

Moses' vision shares some parallels in form to the grand vision received by Nephi.  Nephi also sees in vision a large portion of the Nephites and learns of their fate long before they existed.

Moses only receives his vision after overcoming Satan by calling upon God in the name of Jesus (see Moses 1:20-21).

Nephi must also declare his belief in God prior to his vision.

4 And the Spirit said unto me: Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken?

5 And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father.

6 And when I had spoken these words, the Spirit cried with a loud voice, saying: Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God; for he is God over all the earth, yea, even above all. And blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou believest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired. (1 Nephi 11)

Notice also that the final verse of Moses 1 restricts sharing this information that came through belief with those who do not believe. (See Moses 1:42.) Nephi is also restricted from sharing parts of his vision. (See 1 Nephi 14:28.)

All of that is interesting. It seems Nephi had access to this material, perhaps on the Brass Plates, and was intentionally writing the account of his vision to compare himself to Moses.  He did this in other places, too.

What is this wisdom?

That's the question I've been pondering for the past few weeks.

Notice God's wisdom referenced in Moses 1:31, quoted above. The context of this verse implies that God's wisdom is contained in the foundational purposes of the earth.  Covenant fidelity unfolds this wisdom.  

The opposite of wisdom, then, is covenant rebellion, which leads to utter destruction, being cut off and cast out, etc.

This wisdom pattern is reinforced many times in the scriptures. I'll give three examples below.

Doctrine & Covenants 38

In this revelation, the saints are told to "treasure up wisdom in [their] bosoms, lest the wickedness of men reveal these things unto you by their wickedness, in a manner which shall speak in your ears with a voice louder than that which shall shake the earth..." (see verse 30).  This comes after we are told:

17 And I have made the earth rich, and behold it is my footstool, wherefore, again I will stand upon it.

18 And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh;

19 And I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance, if you seek it with all your hearts.

20 And this shall be my covenant with you, ye shall have it for the land of your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children forever, while the earth shall stand, and ye shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away.

Helaman 12

This whole chapter is a narrative aside written by Mormon, lamenting the foolishness and instability of man. In verse 5, he mentions "wisdom's paths":

4 O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world!

5 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!

6 Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide.

Wisdom's paths clearly start when we hearken unto God and consider his "great goodness and mercy."

Mosiah 8

My final example is a bit of a mystery by itself, but it fits the pattern we're talking about, so I'll share it.

In Mosiah 8, Ammon-1 (the explorer, not the son of Mosiah) learns of the discovery of a fallen civilzation.  Records have been found but no one can read the language.  They seek a man who can interpret languages. Ammon knows such a man.  

In that context (learning about a destroyed civilization), notice these words at the end of the chapter:

19 And now, when Ammon had made an end of speaking these words the king rejoiced exceedingly, and gave thanks to God, saying: Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates, and these interpreters were doubtless prepared for the purpose of unfolding all such mysteries to the children of men.

20 O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and 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!

21 Yea, they are as a wild flock which fleeth from the shepherd, and scattereth, and are driven, and are devoured by the beasts of the forest. (Mosiah 8)

That strikes me as deeply significant to the wisdom pattern I'm trying to flesh out. The mystery is "A whole group of people slaughtered each other."  Heavenly gifts are cited as the path to understanding why this happened.  Wisdom is the answer revealed by that heavenly gift.

To put it simply, the doctrine of Christ is the path of wisdom. Every other course leads to death. Only this path leads to life eternal.  The "mysteries of God" are unfolded to those who will hearken to God's counsel. Everyone who will not hearken is left unprotected from the dangers that lurk as a result of the work of the destroyer. The scriptures are filled with cautionary tales, which can bring us as much wisdom as the examples of righteousness we also find therein.

This is partially a new idea to me.  I'm going to continue to look for examples to help tease more out of this pattern, but I believe I'm starting to see the concept of "God's wisdom" in a whole new light.

The breastplate and the Urim and Thummim

I just read Exodus 28:30

And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually.

Aaron and his sons, the priests of the tabernacle, wore a breastplate in which they put the Urim and Thummim. Some scholars believe that there was some sort of pouch on the breastplate that could fit the two stones. We know that Joseph Smith also had a breastplate and a Urim and Thummim. According to his younger brother, William, the breastplate had a

pocket [that] was prepared in the [Nephite] breastplate on the left side, immediately over the heart. When not in use the [interpreters were] placed in this pocket, the rod being of just the right length to allow it to be so deposited.

Admittedly this is a late account. But if William remembers correctly, the similarities to Exodus and the way Aaron and his sons anciently used the breastplate and Urim and Thummim, are striking. More information on this topic is given in this article. What the article does not mention, is that Joseph Smith did not seem to know about the Urim and Thummim at the time when he translated the Book of Mormon. Otherwise, critics could claim that Joseph simply read Exodus 28:30 and imitated that as he fabricated a story (except the witnesses actually saw the breastplate and interpreters too). But Joseph Smith never once mentioned the Urim and Thummim before, during or shortly after the Book of Mormon translation. They are not mentioned in the Book of Mormon either. Joseph consistently referred to the stones as "the Nephite interpreters". In the Book of Mormon itself, they are described as "interpreters" (Mosiah 8:13), "two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow" (Mosiah 28:13) or simply "two stones" (Ether 3:23).

Not until 1833, the name Urim and Thummim starts being used. Someone, and it does not even seem to be Joseph Smith, made the connection between the Nephite interpreters and the ancient Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Bible. The earliest account that we have where this name is being used and this connection is being made is found in the January edition of the Evening and Morning Star

It was translated by the gift and power of God, by an unlearned man, through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles-(known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim)

This was written by W. W. Phelps. The "perhaps" seems to indicate personal speculation rather than information from Joseph Smith. But this seemed to gain traction since numerous accounts after this use "Urim and Thummim" as names for both the Nephite Interpreters and Joseph Smith's seer stone. I don't know how critics would explain the fact that the Nephite Interpreters seem to be carrying on an ancient Israelite tradition and knowledge of the Urim and Thummim. Joseph just copying the Bible does not hold up to scrutiny, unless we believe that he purposely did not say anything and hoped that someone else like W.W.Phelps would make the connection later on. Seems far fetched to me.

Examples of thematic repetition in Mosiah -- part 1

Stisa's recent series of posts about thematic repetition in scripture (here, here, and here) got me thinking.  As I recently re-read the Book of Mosiah, I couldn't help but see numerous examples, which I'll lay out in two posts.

We already know a lot about the complexity of the Book of Mosiah, so this added layer of subtle thematic repetition is just another layer to learn from. We'll start with a long example.

Example #1: Limhi's speech and Benjamin's speech

Shortly after the account of Benjamin's speech and covenant-making with his people(s), we switch to the account of Limhi and those Nephites who had departed Zarahemla years earlier to reclaim the land of their first inheritance. I noticed two specific details about Limhi's speech to his people which seem to echo the description of Benjamin. 

I can think of two reasons for Mormon to link these two accounts:

1. Limhi's people will later re-unite with the main body of Nephites ruled by Mosiah-2 in Zarahemla.
2. Limhi's leadership mirrors aspects of Mosiah-1's leadership in taking a group of Nephites away from danger in the land of Lehi-Nephi to "go down" to Zarahemla.

The first set of overlapping details is found in Mosiah 7:17 --

17 And now, it came to pass on the morrow that king Limhi sent a proclamation among all his people, that thereby they might gather themselves together to the temple, to hear the words which he should speak unto them.

Compare this to Mosiah 2:1 --

1 And it came to pass that after Mosiah had done as his father had commanded him, and had made a proclamation throughout all the land, that the people gathered themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the temple to hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them.

Three common details are shared in the matching verses, which read very closely to one another.

We also get this set of details in Mosiah 8:4 --

4 And it came to pass that after he had done all this, that king Limhi dismissed the multitude, and caused that they should return every one unto his own house.

This matches up with Mosiah 6:3: 

3 And again, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of all these things, and had consecrated his son Mosiah to be a ruler and a king over his people, and had given him all the charges concerning the kingdom, and also had appointed priests to teach the people, that thereby they might hear and know the commandments of God, and to stir them up in remembrance of the oath which they had made, he dismissed the multitude, and they returned, every one, according to their families, to their own houses.

Here we again find three very similar phrases in common between the two passages, in the same order, albeit with some additional details given in King Benjamin's account.

The second set of details is especially interesting because it appears right after Ammon is invited to rehearse the words of Benjamin (see Mosiah 8:2-3). This is yet another link between Limhi and Benjamin, and shows Limhi to be in harmony with Benjamin's teachings.

One final link between the two stories is that Limhi asks Ammon about interpreting the Jaredite records they found. Ammon refers him to Mosiah-2 (Benjamin's son), and Limhi rejoices and gives thanks to God:

19 And now, when Ammon had made an end of speaking these words the king rejoiced exceedingly, and gave thanks to God, saying: Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates, and these interpreters were doubtless prepared for the purpose of unfolding all such mysteries to the children of men. (Mosiah 8)

This is quite reminiscent of Benjamin's words to his sons:

5 I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct. (Mosiah 1)

The Lord's course is one eternal round. It seems Mormon was able to embed an additional layer of teaching into his abridgement by intentionally creating links between certain accounts. These deeper messages would be apparent once the connection was found. In this case, the deeper message seems to be: "Even those who separated themselves from the covenant people have access to the blessings of the covenant if they hearken to and believe the words of faithful messengers sent to reclaim them from bondage."

In the next post I'll outline several more examples of thematic repetition.

Achaz -- part 2

In my last post, I outlined the various meanings of the Hebrew root "achaz" in the Old Testament.  I've searched the Book of Mormon for passages with similar words and found the verses listed below.  Each reference is highlighted in red if has a negative connotation or green if the connotation is positive.

Grasp/Seize

10 O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. 11 And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave. 12 And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel. (2 Nephi 9)

19 For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; ... 22 And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance. 23 Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment. (2 Nephi 28)

14 And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and they were in the grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be cut off from his presence. (Alma 42)

Hold

24 And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree. (1 Nephi 8)

24 And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. (1 Nephi 15)

18 And he said unto the servant: Behold, the branches of the wild tree have taken hold of the moisture of the root thereof, that the root thereof hath brought forth much strength; and because of the much strength of the root thereof the wild branches have brought forth tame fruit. (Jacob 5)

25 But Amulek stretched forth his hand, and cried the mightier unto them, saying: O ye wicked and perverse generation, why hath Satan got such great hold upon your hearts? Why will ye yield yourselves unto him that he may have power over you, to blind your eyes, that ye will not understand the words which are spoken, according to their truth? (Alma 10)

18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. (Alma 36)

29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked— 30 And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out. (Helaman 3)

30 And behold, it is he who is the author of all sin. And behold, he doth carry on his works of darkness and secret murder, and doth hand down their plots, and their oaths, and their covenants, and their plans of awful wickedness, from generation to generation according as he can get hold upon the hearts of the children of men. 31 And now behold, he had got great hold upon the hearts of the Nephites; yea, insomuch that they had become exceedingly wicked; yea, the more part of them had turned out of the way of righteousness, and did trample under their feet the commandments of God, and did turn unto their own ways, and did build up unto themselves idols of their gold and their silver. (Helaman 6)

31 And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them. ... 35 Yea, we have hid up our treasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land. 36 O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them. (Helaman 13)

19 And they were cast into prison by them who did not belong to the church. And the prisons could not hold them, for they were rent in twain. 20 And they were cast down into the earth; but they did smite the earth with the word of God, insomuch that by his power they were delivered out of the depths of the earth; and therefore they could not dig pits sufficient to hold them. (3 Nephi 28)

28 And this church did multiply exceedingly because of iniquity, and because of the power of Satan who did get hold upon their hearts. (4 Nephi 1)

8 Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews, which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you. (Mormon 7)

19 Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ. 20 And now, my brethren, how is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing? 21 And now I come to that faith, of which I said I would speak; and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay hold on every good thing. 22 For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing. 23 And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come. 24 And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them. 25 Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ. (Moroni 7)

30 And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing. (Moroni 10)

Possess

25 Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things. (1 Nephi 15)


3 And after I had made these plates by way of commandment, I, Nephi, received a commandment that the ministry and the prophecies, the more plain and precious parts of them, should be written upon these plates; and that the things which were written should be kept for the instruction of my people, who should possess the land, and also for other wise purposes, which purposes are known unto the Lord. (1 Nephi 19)


20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another (Mosiah 2)


16 And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can; yet a man may have great power given him from God. (Mosiah 8)


14 And even I myself have labored with all the power and faculties which I have possessed, to teach you the commandments of God... (Mosiah 29)


27 And now, may the peace of God rest upon you, and upon your houses and lands, and upon your flocks and herds, and all that you possess, your women and your children, according to your faith and good works, from this time forth and forever. (Alma 7)


7 And it came to pass that he [Zeezrom] began to cry unto the people, saying: Behold, I am guilty, and these men are spotless before God. And he began to plead for them from that time forth; but they reviled him, saying: Art thou also possessed with the devil? And they spit upon him, and cast him out from among them, and also all those who believed in the words which had been spoken by Alma and Amulek; and they cast them out, and sent men to cast stones at them. (Alma 14)


42 Behold, I know that thou believest, but thou art possessed with a lying spirit, and ye have put off the Spirit of God that it may have no place in you; but the devil has power over you, and he doth carry you about, working devices that he may destroy the children of God. (Alma 30)


34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world. 35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked. (Alma 34)


8 And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them. (Ether 2)

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.