Soofea. See .SOkis.
BooL Sie SixxA.
Soothsayer (COp, loH-m, Josh, xiii, 22; else- where "diviner;" "JriS, tiifoncii, Isa. ii, 6; Mic. v, 12 [ Hib. U]; elsewhere "enchanter," "sorcerer;" Chald. ns, '/'in'z, Dan. ii, 27; iv, 7 ; v, 7, 11 ; fiavrtvofiat, "Booths:iyin(.'." Acts xvi, ICi). See Divination.
Soothsaying in Christian Times. Although Christianity was a professed enemy to soothsaying and its kindred practices, yet the remains of such supersti- tion coiitiinied in the minds of man}' in the Church. The ('hurch was therefore obliged to make severe laws to restrain them. The Council of Eliberis (can. 6'2) makes the renunciation of this art a condition of bap- tism, and a return to its practice was followed by ex[)ul- sion from the Church. This was the rule in the Apos- tolical Constitutions (lib. viii, cap. 32), and the councils of Agde (can. 42), Vannes (Cone. Venet. can. IG), Orleans (Cone. Aurel. I, can. 30), and several others. A peculiar sort of augury was condemned by the French councils last named, under the name of sortes sucrm. divination by holy lots. It is also known as sortes Biblica;. Bible lots. The practice of the Romans in opening a book of Virgil and taking the first passage that appeared as an oracle was imitated by many superstitious Christians. These used the Bible to learn their fortune by "sacred lots," taking the first passage that presented itself to make their divination and conjecture upon. This was also called " The Lot of the Saints," and was practiced for gain by some of the French clergy ; but it was de- creed by the Coinicil of Agde that any who " should be detected in the |)ractice of this art, either as consulting or teaching it, should be cast out of the communion of the Church." The custom of using the Bible in this way still lingers in England, Scotland, and other coun- tries, more, however, as sport for children. See Bing- ham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, bk. xvi, ch. v, § 2. See SuPEUSTiTiON.
Sop (xpiofiiov, a. morsel), a piece of bread dipped into sauce (John xiii, 2G-30).
So'pater {'S.i'oiraTpoc, i. e. sarior of his father, a common Greek name), the son of Pyrrhus of Bercea, was one of the companions of Paul on his return from (ireece into Asia as he came back from his third missionary journey (Acts xx, 4). A.D. 55. Whether he is the same with SosiPATEK (q. V.) mentioned in Kom. xvi, 21 can- not be positively determined. The name of bis father, Pyrrhus, is omitted in the received text, though it has the authority of the oldest MSS., A, B, D, E^ and the recentlj' discovered Codex Si7iaiticus, as well as of the Vidgate, Coptic, Sahidic, Philoxenian-Sj'riac, Armenian, and Slavonic versions. INIill condemns it, apparently without reason, as a traditional gloss. — Smith.
Sope. See Soap.
Sopher. See Scribe.
Sophe'reth (Ileb. id. r'nsb, n-ritinrj; Sept. Se- (t>t]pd, 'S.a(papaT, v. r. 'Aat(popdB, Xarpopd^), one whose children were a family that returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel among the descendants of Solomon's ser- vants (Ezra ii, 55; Neh. vii, 57). B.C. ante b'Mi.
Sopherim is the title of a Talmudic treatise, which is generally found at the end of the ninth volume of the Babylonian Talmud, together with other treatises which belong to the post-Talmudic period. The whole consists of twenty-one chapters, and is divided into three i)arts, the first of which has given the title So- pherim to the whole treatise. Part first, comprising ch. i-v, contains directions for the copyist of the Holy Writings. With this part corres|)onds what we read in the treatise Sepher Torah (edited by K. Kircblieim, Frankf.-on-the-Main, 1851),' in the Septem Libri Tal- mudici J'aj-vi llierosolymitani. Part second, compris- ing ch. vi-ix, contains the Masoretic part of the book, and treats of the ten words of the Pentateuch which have the puncta extraordimtria, viz. (ien. xvi, 5; xviii, ;•; xix, .33; xxxiii, 4; xxxvii, 12; Numb, iii, oi»; ix, 10; xxi, 30; xxix, 15; Dent, xxix, 28; of the Keri and Kethih, the variations between Psa. xviii and 2 Sam. xxii, lietween Isa. xxxvi sq. ami 2 Kings xviii s(|. The eiMuncralion of the words, which are written, but not read, and of those portions which are not to be read pub- licly, leads us to the third part, which is subdivided into
SOPHIA
883
SOR
two sections, viz. ch. x-xvi, which treat of the laws for the public reading in general, while ch. xvii-xxi treat of the holydavs. From the contents we see the impor- tance of tills treatise for the text of the Old Test. Its redaction probably belongs to the 9th century; in the r2th century it is cited by the school of Southern France. This treatise has often been commented upon —thus by A. L. Spira, who published the text with the commentary PT'-S '^^•J•C^ SXilX pbnD (Dyrhenfurt, 1732), and by Jac. Naumburg, in his 3p"'i r5n3 (Fiirth, 1793). The first part (ch. i-v) has been edited, together with a Latin translation, by J. G. Chr. Adler, in his Jucheurum Codicis Sacri Rile ScribeiuU Leges (^Hamb. 1779). Of late the treatise Sophtrim has been published by J. Miiller ( Leips. 1878), under the title Musechet Sopherim, der tulinudische Tractat der iSchrei- ber, eine Einleitung in das Studium der althebrdischen Graphik, der Masora und der altjildischen Liturgie. This edition contains, besides the Hebrew text, ex- planations in German, which are very valuable in spite of the many mistakes which we often lind in the writing of proper nouns, as Kennikut for Kennicott, etc. For a review of Mliller's edition, see Schiirer, Theolog. Lite- 7-aturzeitung, 1878, p. 626 sq. ; Jiidisches Liieraturblatt, 1879, p. 53 sq. ; 61 sq. See Talmud. (13. P.)