LiTKUATi'KK. — This has been Indicated In the course of the article. The reader eliouki consult art. ' WahrsuKerei ' in Kiclnn's ItW'B'^; Nowack's and Hciizinjfcr's Heb. Ar<^h.; art. * Oivinatiun ' in Knci/c. liil'lica ; Snicnd, A T JUtijjiousnt'Sih. pp. 78 ff., 113, 178, 10,'), 27(1. 200; W. K. Smith, ap. Driver on Ul 18'»'-, and in Journal nf I'liilolmiil, xiii. 273 9., xiv. 113 ft. On Dreams cf. Brecber, />«■« 'IVanscevdentalf ... im Taimuttt
H37-«7. Owen C. Whitehouse.
* Of. W. R. Smith, Kinship and ilarriage, p. 808, In nterence to the mystic piacuUr rites of the 7th cent. B.c.
602
SOP
SOKCERY
SOP. — A sop (Anglo-Sax. [s"/'/""], from .iiipan, to sup) is a morsel of food soaUed in liquid. Cf. Chaucer, Marc/umtes Tale, 599 —
' Anc then he taketh a sop in fj-n clarrce.'
The word was used by Tindale to translate ypufilov {from vf-uM-ifu, to feed) in Jn l ,■?-'"''»■"■ -", the only occurrences of the Gr. word. (Wydif had already used it in 13'^- ", givin<; ' bread ' and ' morsel ' in the other places. The Vulg. has burcella in 13"- '", but simply panis in ssfcij^ anj tije Kheinis follows with ' bread ' in » "", and ' morsel ' in '"■ «'). The mod. meaning, ' something given to keep quiet,' is also found in early writers, as Howard, Committee, iv. 1, 'Why, you unconscionable Kascal, are }'ou angry that I am unlucky, or do you want some fees ? I'll perish in a Dungeon before I'll consume with throwing Sops to such Curs.'
J. Hastings. SOPATER (SciTTOTpos, Sopater). — A man of Beroea who in St. Paul's third missionary journey accom- panied him from PhUippi (Ac 20''). He is called in the older MSS son of Pyrrhus. He was com- memorated June 25 and July 12. See also SosiP-
ATER.
SOPE.— See the modem spelling SOAP.
SOPHERETH (m,Dt : BA 1a<t>6.pae, K ^a<papaet, Luc. 'A(jo<p4ped). — A family of Nethinira that re- turned with Zerubbabel, Neh 7". In the parallel passage, Ezr 2°°, the name appears as Hasso- phereth (n"i?bn ; B 'k<Te4>ijpa.0, A 'A<Te<)>6pa8, Luc. Acru(p4p(e), and in 1 Es 5*^ as ASSAPHION.
SOPHONIAS The form in which the name of
the prophet Zephaniah occurs in 2 Es 1*".
SORCERY. — The subject of sorcery has already been treated in most of its aspects under Magic. There remain, however, certain features in this extensive department which are reserved for treat- ment in the present article.
The wide prevalence of sorcery in pre-exilian Israelite life is only partially revealed in the OT. That the underlying motive of the Brazen Serpent in Nu 21*"" was the same as that of the Tn-inged colossal and human-headed bulls or genii (lamassu or lamaiiu, cf. the cherubim in Gn 3^*, and Schrader, COT, ad loc.) which were set up at tlie doors of the Assyrian palaces to prevent the access of demons, of disease, or other calamity, seems to be fairly probable. In this connexion we must bear in mind the undoubted fact that the serpent was associated not only with demons to whom a destructive power belonged (cf. Gn 3 and Is 14^ 27' and Am 9'),* but also with those endowed with beneficent powers. Mohammed held that serpents might be inhabited by good as well as by evil jinn, and among the ancient Greeks the serpent was held to be sacred to the healing god jEsculapius. Also, as Robertson Smith reminds us, the South Arabs regard medicinal waters as inhabited by jinn, usually of serpent form {RS'^ p. 1G8, cf. 172). On this subject interesting facts have been col- lected by Baudissin, in his Essay on the Symbolism of the Serjient, in Studien zur sem. Religions- gesch. i. p. 257 il'. The brazen image of the serpent (l^jy'nj), worshipi>ed in the rei'Ti of Hezekiah, and the occurrence of the name Nahash among Canaan- ite peoples, point to the prevalence of the serpent- cult. See Nehushtan.
Again, the law, to which the modem Jew pays so much deference, contained in Dt 6*- •, involves an ancient belief in the magic potency of written
• Here Gunkel {Seh&pfung li. Chaos) has shown that we have remnanU ol the old BabylonioQ chaos-myth {Tidrntu, ' draj-on ol thede«p'X
words and names, of whi(-h Lane [Modern Efji/p- tinns, 1871, i. pp. 7 ft". , 319 11. ) gives valuable illus- trations. The ^hemn', as well as the following precept, ' And thou shalt love Jehovah thy Goa with all thy soul . . .,' were to be bound as a si"n upon the hand, and for frontlets between the eyes. They >\'ere also to be ^vritten upon the doorposts of the house and on the gates. The Jews in the present day use the name nuzi'izah, which in the original Deuteronomic sense meant ' doorpost,' for the small metal case which con- tained a piece of folded parchment, upon which the words aforesaid were ^^Titten, viz. Dt 6''"' as well as Dt 11""-', in twenty-two lines. This would be placed at the right of the entrance, on the upper part of the doorpost. Like an amulet in- scribed with words or names of mysterious potency, this piece of parchment was held to possess a magic and protective eHieacy. See Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesiis the Messiah, i. p. 76. The tephillin or phylacteries, on the left arm and fore- head, are of like cl)aracter (see art. Phylacteries).