Fragments of a Christianized Coptic recension of the Apocabjpse of Zephaniah were discovered at Akhmim and published by S. Bouriant in Mim. de la mission archiol. au Caire, 1885. A Germ, translation by Stem appeared in the Ztschr. f. drjyp. Sprache, etc., 1886, p. 115 H'. ; and the same fragments, with additions, and along with a fairly comi)lete Coptic recension of the Apocalypse of Elias, have been edited by Steindorfi' in TU. The question of how much belongs to the Apocalypxc of Zephaniah and how much ought to be assigned to an unidentified Apocalypse, is not yet settled (cf. James in Encyc. Bibl. i. 256).
Literature. — Fabricius, Cod. pseudepigr. VT i. 1140 f. ; Dillm. in PRE'i xii. 360 ; Zockler, Apokr. d. AT 440; Schurer, GJV3 iiL 271 J. ; Harnack, Getch. d. attchrist. Litt. i. 854, ii. 1, 672 1 ; Bousset, Der Antichriit, 1895, pp. 54-67.
J. T. Maeshall. ZEPHANIAH, BOOK OF.—
i. The Writer, ii. Contents of the Boole, iii. Date and Unity.
iv. Literarj' Characteristics, Condition of Text, etc. T. Religious Value.
Literature.
i. The M^riter.— The title of the book reads : ' The word of the LORD, which came unto Zeph- aniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariali, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Anion, king of Judah.' The name Zephaniah (n;;5i-, LXX -o<poi'lai; cf. the name Sl'ajss in No. 107 of the Phoen. inscriptions in CIS) means 'he whom J" has hidden or protected,' and is borne in the OT by tliree men (see art. ZEPH- ANIAH) besides the author of the prophecy before ns. It has plausibly been inferred that the ^eze- Jciah named in the title is the Juda'in nion.arch of that name (so Hitzig, followed by most modems). This would account for the genealogy of Zephaniah bein" carried back four generations, whereas the usual practice in the case of the prophets is to name only their father (cf. Is 1' ' Isaiah the son of Amoz,' Jer 1" Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah,' Ezk P 'Ezeki«l the son of IJuzi,' Jl 1' 'Joel the son of Petliuel '). No argument against this conclusion can be drawn from tlie absence of the title ' kin" of Judah ' after ^ezeki•■^h's name. This title could have been inserted only somewhat awkwardly, seeing that it liad to be aj)pended also to Josiah's name, and may have been lelt to be unnecessary in
the case of so well-known a name as that of ^leze. kiah. Zephaniah's great-grandfather, Aniariah. will thus liave been a younger brother of king Man.asseh, and no difficulty in the way of Zeph- aniah's being a contemporary of Josiah is occasioned by the circumstance that the succession IJezekiah — Manasseh — Amon — Josiah appears to contain a generation fewer than Uezekiah — Amariah — Geda- liah— Cushi — Zephaniah. For we learn from 2 K 21'- " that Manasseh was 45 years old when his son Amon was born, a date at which his brother Amariah might easily have had a grandson (Cushi). Zephaniah may tlius have been as old as, or even older than, Josiah. If the prophet belonged to the royal family, all the greater interest attaches to his strictures upon 'the princes and tlie king's sons ' (!*• '). He w,as, clearly enough, a dweller in Jerusalem (note his familiarity with the various localities of the city, the Fish Gate, the Second Quarter, the Maktesh [1'°-"], and esp. the words in I'' ' I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place ').
ii. Contents of the Book.— The prophecy falls into two unequal divisions, the first and larger of these being occupied with threatenings, tlie second with promises.
A. The Threatening, 1--3'.
A destructive judgment, universal in its scope, is proclaimed in terms which reca.U those that heraldpd the approach of the Deluge (Gn 6' ; cf. also Hos 4' and Ezk 38'*) ; man and beast, the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea, the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, are to be cut ofl (P-»).
The word ni'?p'*3 in v. 3 is doubtful. In its only other occur- rence (in the sing. nV^pp Is 3^) it means 'overthrown mass,* 'ruin,' which of course does not suit here; and even the rendering ' stumbling-blocks ' {i.e. idols ; cf. the use of the cog- nate S^c^rp in Ezk 14^- -1- 7) is hardly appropriate t*^ the context. Schwally would emend 'ri'~::'51 [G. A. Smith prefers Hiph. T'i^r'?'!] 'and I will cause (the nicked) to stumble' (cf. v.n ' they shall walk like blind men '). LX5 reads ««i affBitrrovrit tl airt^Ct ( = C"i*v^v' ^'^rr^)- Wellh. and Now. (cf. Davidson) regard the words C'Vv'"*n'nN n^^^^^n as an interpolation of a late glossator, who missed a definite allusion to the sweeping away of idols in the general destruction.
In particular this judgment will overtake idola- ters and syncrctists in Judah and Jerusalem ( vv,"**^). The 'day of tlie Lord' (on this conception see the references in art. Obadiah, vol. iii. p. 578*) is at hand ; He has prepared a sacrificial feast {cf. Is 13* 34«, Jer 46^**, Ezk SQi^), where thr victims are the people of Judah, and to this t^:e instruments of His vengeance (prob. the Scythian hordes ; see helow under * Date ') as ' sanctified ' guests (cf. 1 S 16' 20-^) are invited (v.'^). From the royal house downwards all classes are guilt}', and shall share in the terrors of that day (vv.^'*').