SOPHONIAS
146
SOPHONIAS
profound thinking, but by discussion and debate.
In accordance with this principle, they gathered
around them the young men of Athens, and professed
to prepare tliem for their career as citizens and as
men by teaching them the art of public speaking and
the theory and practice of argumentation. They did
not pretend to teach how the truth is to be attained.
They did not care whether it could be attained or not.
They aimed to impart to their pupils the abiUty to
make the better cause seem the worse, and the worse
the better. If we are to believe their opponents,
Plato and Aristotle, they affected all kinds of refine-
ment, in dres.s, speech, gesture, etc., and carried their
love of argumentation to the point where all serious-
ness of purpose ceased and quibbling and sophistry
began.
The principal Sophists were: Protagoras of Abdera, called the Individualist; Gorgias of Leontini, sur- named the Nihilist; Hippias of Elis, the Polymathist; and Prodicus of Ceos, the Morahst. Gorgias was called the Nihilist because of his doctrine "nothing exists: even if anything existed, we could know noth- ing about it, and, even if we knew anything about anything, we could not communicate our knowledge". Hippias was called the Polymathist because he laid claim to knowledge of many out-of-the-way subjects, such as archaeology, and used this knowledge for the sophistical purpose of dazzling and embarrassing his opponent in argument. Prodicus, called the Moral- ist because in his discourses, especially in that which he entitled "Hercules at the Cross-roads", he strove to inculcate moral lessons, although he did not attempt to reduce conduct to principles, but taught rather by proverb, epigram, and illustration. The most im- portant of all the Sophists was Protagoras, the In- dividualist, so called because he held that the indi- vidual is the test of all truth. "Man is the measure of all things" is a saying attributed to him bj' Plato, which sums up the Sophists' doctrine in regard to the value of knowledge.
The Sophists may be said to be the first Greek sceptics. The materialism of the Atomists, the ideal- ism of the Eleatics, and the doctrine of universal change which was a tenet of the School of Heraelitus — all these tendencies resulted in a condition of un- rest, out of which philosophy could not advance to a more satisfactory state until an enquiry was made into the problem of the value of knowledge. The Sophists did not undertake that enquiry — a task re- served for Socrates (q. v.) — however, they called attention to the existence of the problem, and in that way, and in that way only, they contributed to the progress of philosophy in Greece. The absurdities to which the Sophistic method was carried by the later Sophists was due in part to the Megarians, who made common cause with them, and substituted the method of strife (Eristic method) for the Socratic method of discoverj' (Heuristic method). It was inevitable, therefore, that the name Sophist should lose its primitive meaning, and come to designate, not a man of wisdom, but a quibbler, and one who uses fallacious arguments. The Sophists represent a phiise of Greek thought which, while it had no con- structive value, and is, indeed, a step backward and not forward, in the course of Greek speculation is nevertheless of great imjiortance historically, because it was the evil iiifluiTU-o of the Sopliists thai inspired Socrates with the idea of n'futing them liy showing the conditions of true knowledge. It wa-s, no doul)t, their methods, too, that Aristotle had in min<i when he wrote his treatise of the fallacies, and entitled it "De Sophisticis Elenchis".
For texts see Ritteb and Prelleh, Historia Phil. Gr/rcai (Gotha, 1888), ISl aq.: B\KEWEi.L. Source Book in AncicjU Phi- losophy (New York, 1907), 67 sq.; Zei.i,er. Prc-Socralic Philoso- phert, tr. Allev.ve (London. 1881): II, ;i01 sq.; Turner. His- tory 0/ Philosophy (Boston, 1903), 70 sq.
William Turner.
Sophonias, the ninth of the twelve Minor Prophets
of the Canon of the Old Testament, preached and
wrote in the second half of the seventh century b. c.
He was a contemporary and supporter of the great
Prophet Jeremias. His name (Heb. Zephanja, that
is "the Lord conceals", "the Lord protects") might,
on the analogy of Gottfried, be most briefly trans-
lated by the words God protect. The only primary
source from which we obtain our scanty knowledge of
the personality and the rhetorical and hterary quali-
ties of Sophonias, is the short book of the Old Testa-
ment (containing only three chapters), which bears
his name. The scene of his activity was the city of
Jerusalem (i, 4-10; iii, 1 sqq.; 14 sqq.).
I. Date. — The date of the Prophet's activity fell in the reign of King Josias (641-11). Sophonias is one of the few Prophets whose chronology is fixed by a precise date in the introductory verse of the book. Under the two preceding kings, Amon and Manasse, idolatry had been introduced in the most shameful forms (especially the cult of Baal and Astai"te) into the Holy City, and with this foreign cult came a foreign culture and a great corruption of morals. Jo- sias, the king with the anointed sceptre, wished to put an end to the horrible devastation in the holy places. One of the most zealous champions and advisers of this reform was Sophonias, and his writing remains one of the most important documents for the under- standing of the era of Josias. The Prophet laid the axe at the root of the religious and moral corruption, when, in view of the idolatry which had penetrated even into the sanctuary, he threatened to "destroy out of this place the remnant of Baal, and the names of the . . . priests" (i, 4), and pleaded for a return to the simplicity of their fathers instead of the luxurious foreign clothing which was worn espe- cially in aristocratic circles (i, 8). The age of So- phonias was also a most serious and decisive period, because the lands of Anterior Asia were overrun by foreigners owing to the migration of the Scythians in the last decades of the seventh eenturj', and be- cause Jerusalem, the city of the Prophets, was only a few decades before its downifall (586). The far-see- ing watchman on Sion's battlements saw this catas- trophe draw near: "for the day of the Lord is near" is the burden of his preaching (i, 7). "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and exceeding swift: . . . That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and mis- ery, a day of darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds" (i, 14-1.5).
II. Contents. — The book of the Prophet natu- rally contains in its three chapters only a sketch of the fundamental ideas of the preaching of Sopho- nias. The scheme of the book in its present form is as follows:
(a) i, 2-ii, 3. — The threatening of the "day of the Lord", a Dies irce dies ilia of the Old Testament. The judgment of the Lord will descend on Juda and Jerusalem as a punishment for the awful degeneracy in rehgious life (i, 4- 7a); it will extend to all classes of the people (i, 7b-13), and will be attended with all the horrors of a frightful catastrophe (i, 14-18) ; therefore, do penance and seek the Lord (ii, 1-3).
(b) ii, 4-l.j. — Not only over .Jerusalem, but over the whole world (urhi el orbi). over the jieoples in all the four regions of the heavens, will the hand of the Lord be stretched — westwards over the Philistines (4-7), eastwards over the Moabites and Ammonites (8-11), southwards over the Ethiopians (12), and northwards over the Assyrians and Ninivites (13-15).
(c) With a .special threat (iii, 1-8), the Prophet then turns again to .Jeru.'ialem : "Woe to the provokirg, and redeemed city. . . . She hath not liearkened to the voice, neither hath shereceiveil discipline"; the sever- est reckoning will be required of the aristocrats and the administrators of the law (as the leading classes of
