How do you duplicate a variable's value without using the same memory address?

I thought I understood how a variable worked with a variable being assigned an address in memory where you can store a value, though evidently I don't. I have this small snippet of code here that finds certain combination of numbers that fit into a bigger number. My issue is where if result == 0 then I try to copy the value of priorPath to a different variable completedPath, then add list[i] into the table completedPath, and then store completedPath into another table storing all possible paths. My issue is that any changes to completedPath all show up on priorPath which I don't want to happen. So back to the original question, how do I declare a variable of equal value using a different memory address?

local function testNumber(number, exit)

    if number > exit then return false end

	return exit - number

end

  

local function getPaths(list, goal, priorPath, paths)

    --print(goal)
    
    for i = 1, #list do
    
	    local result = testNumber(list[i], goal)
    
	    if result == 0 then
    
		    local completedPath = priorPath
    
		    table.insert(completedPath, list[i])
    
		    table.insert(paths, completedPath)
    
	    elseif result then
    
		    table.insert(priorPath, list[i])
    
		    paths = getPaths(list, goal - list[i], priorPath,	paths)
    
		   end
    
    end

    return paths

end

Edit: I ended up having to do something stupid like the following, and it worked, any better solutions?

local function testNumber(number, exit)


	if number > exit then return false end

		return exit - number

	end



local function getPaths(list, goal, priorPath, paths)
for i = 1, #list do

	print(list[i])

	local result = testNumber(list[i], goal)

	if result == 0 then

		local newTbl = {}

		for k,l in pairs(priorPath) do

			table.insert(newTbl, l)

		end

		table.insert(newTbl, list[i].." ")

		table.insert(paths, newTbl)

	elseif result then

		local newTbl = {}

		for k,l in pairs(priorPath) do

			table.insert(newTbl, l)

		end

		table.insert(newTbl, list[i])

		paths = getPaths(list, goal - list[i], newTbl, paths)

	end

end

return paths

end