appointed extraordinary professor of divinity. His earlier works include Philipperbrief (1890); “Untersuchungen über neutest. Schriften” in the Protest. Jahrb. theolog. Studien und Schriftkommentar (1895-1897); Und was tut d. evangel. Kirche? (3rd. ed. 1890); Reisebriefe aus Palästina (2nd ed. 1901); Palästina und seine Gesch. (2nd ed. 1904); Die wichtigsten Fragen im Leben Jesu (1904); Urchristliche Literaturgesch. (1904). His most important book is Die Schriften des neuen Testaments, in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt hergestettt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte (Berlin, Bd. I., 1902-1910); certainly the most important work on the text of the New Testament which had been published since Westcott and Hort's New Testament in the Original Greek (see Bible: New Testament).
Von Soden introduces, besides a new notation of MSS. (see Bible, N.T. MSS. and versions), a new theory of textual history. He thinks that in the 4th century there were in existence three recensions of the text, which he distinguishes as K, H and I, with the following characteristics and attestations.
K corresponds roughly to Westcott and Hort's Syrian Antiochian text; it was probably made by Lucian in the 4th century. This was in the end the most popular form of text, and is found in a more or less degenerate state in all late MSS. The purest representatives are 61 (Ω), ε75 (V), 92, (461), 94, 1027 (S), 1126 (476 = scrivener's k) ε179 (661). Later recensions of K are called Kx, and Kr, and there are also others of less importance which represent the combination of K with other texts.
H represents Westcott and Hort's Neutral and Alexandrian texts between which von Soden does not distinguish.
It is found in eleven MSS. in varying degrees of purity: δ1 (B), δ2 (א), δ3 (C), δ6 (Ψ), δ 48 (33), ε26 (Z), ε56 (L), ε76 (Δ), ε1026 (892), δ371 (1241) and ε376 (579). Between these MSS. there is no very intimate connexion except between δ1 and δ2 (B and א) which represent a common original (δ1-2). δ1-2 is the best representative of H, but it has been contaminated by the Egyptian versions, and sometimes by the K and I texts and by Origen, though not to any great extent.
The other H MSS. are none of them equal in value to the two great uncials. They have all been influenced by K, I, and by the text of parallel passages, to a greater extent than δ1-2, or than either of the two witnesses to δ1-2, but some of them have less Egyptian corruption.
The origin of the H text must be regarded as unquestionably Egyptian, in view of the fact that it was used by all the Egyptian Church writers after the end of the 3rd century, and von Soden adopts the well-known hypothesis, first made popular by Bousset, that it represents the recension of Hesychius.
I does not quite correspond to anything in Westcott and Hort's system, but has points of contact with their “Western” text. It is found in a series of subgroups of MSS. known as Hr, J, Ia, and others of less importance (about eleven subgroups are suggested). Of these Hr is a family containing Cod. I and its allies (δ254, ε346, δ457, δ467, &c.), ε288 (22) and some allied MSS. ε2O3 (872), εl83 and ε1131; J is the well-known Ferrar group; and Ia contains δ5 (D), ε93 (565), ε133 (700), εl68 (28), ε050 and some others. It is necessary to note that von Soden is able to place D in this group because he regards it as owing many of its most remarkable readings to contamination with the Latin version. I is, according to von Soden, a Palestinian recension connected with Eusebius, Pamphilus and Origen.
After establishing the text of I, H and K, von Soden reconstructs an hypothetical text, I-H-K, which he believes to have been their ancestor. He then tries to show that this text was known to all the writers of the 3rd and 2nd centuries, but has naturally to account for the fact that the quotations of these writers and the text of the early versions often diverge from it. The explanation that he offers is that the Diatessaron of Tatian was widely used and corrupted all extant texts, so that the Old Syriac, the Old Latin, the quotations of Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian and others may be regarded as various combinations of the Tatianic text and I-H-K. Finally, he tries to show that the Tatianic text is itself in the main merely a corrupt form of I-H-K altered in order to suit the necessities of Tatian's plan.
For criticism of this important theory up to 1909 see Nestle's Einführung in das griechische neue Testament, pp. 274-278 (3rd ed., Göttingen, 1909), and K. Lake's Professor H. von Soden's Treatment of the Text of the Gospels, Edinburgh, 1908).
(K. L.)
SÖDERHAMN, a seaport of Sweden, in the district (län) of Gefleborg, on an inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia, near the, mouth of the Ljasne River, 183 m. N. by W. of Stockholm by rail. Pop. (1900), 11,258. This is one of the principal centres of the timber export trade, having saw-mills, planing-mills and wood-pulp works. There are also ironworks and breweries. Vessels drawing 15 ft. have access to Branthäll, where they generally load. The harbour is at the suburb of Stugsund. It is usually ice-bound for some four months in winter. The town was given municipal privileges by Gustavus Adolphus in 1620, but is modern in appearance, having been rebuilt after fires in 1860 and 1865.
SODERINI, PIERO (1450-1513), Florentine statesman, was elected gonfalonier for life in 1502 by the Florentines, who wished to give greater stability to their republican institutions, which had been restored after the expulsion of Piero de' Medici and the martyrdom of Savonarola. His rule proved moderate and wise, although he had not the qualities of a great statesman. He introduced a system of national militia in the place of foreign mercenaries, and during his government the long war with Pisa was brought to a close with the capture of that city by the Florentines in 1509. Grateful to France, who had assisted him, he always took the French side in Italian politics. But in 1512 the Medici with the help of a Spanish army returned to Florence, deposed Soderini and drove him into exile. He took refuge at Ragusa in Dalmatia, where he remained until the election of Pope Leo X., who summoned him to Rome and conferred many favours on him. Soderini lived in Rome, working for the good of Florence, to which he was never allowed to return, until his death.
SÖDERTELGE a town of Sweden, in the district (län) of Stockholm, 23 m. W.S.W. of Stockholm by rail. Pop. (1900), 8,207. It is beautifully situated on a bay of Lake Mälar, which is here connected with the Baltic by the Södertelge canal, 1¼ m. in length, with a minimum depth of 10 ft. This is on the route followed by the Göta Canal steamers between Stockholm and Gothenburg; it was opened in 1819, though a canal was begun here in the first half of the 15th century at the instigation of the patriot Engelbrecht. The town contains an ancient church, believed to date from c. 1100. Here and in the neighbourhood are the residences of many of the business class of Stockholm; and the town is in favour as a summer resort, having mineral springs and baths. There are engineering shops producing railway stock and motors, jute spinning and weaving mills, and match and joinery works.
SODIUM [symbol Na, from Lat. natrium; atomic weight 23.00 (O = 16)], a chemical element belonging to the group of alkali (metals. It is abundantly and widely diffused in nature, but always in combination. Sodium chloride, or common salt, (q.v.), is exceedingly common, being the chief salt present in sea-water, besides occurring in extensive stratified deposits. Sodium carbonates are also widely dispersed in nature, forming constituents of many mineral waters, and occurring as principal saline components in natron, or trona lakes, as efflorescences in Lower Egypt, Persia and China, and as urao in Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela. The solid crusts found at the bottom of the salt lakes of the Araxes plain in Armenia contain about 16% of carbonate and 80 of sulphate. In Colombia there occurs a double salt, Na2CO3⋅CaCO3⋅5H2O, known as gay-lussite. In Wyoming, California and Nevada enormous deposits of carbonates, mixed in some cases with sulphate and with chloride, occur. About Szegedin in Hungary and all over the vast pusztas (steppes) between the Theiss and the Danube, and from the Theiss up to and beyond Debreczin, the soil contains sodium carbonate, which frequently assumes the form of crude alkaline crusts, called “szekso,” and of small saline ponds. A purified specimen of such Debreczin soda was found to contain as much as 90% of real carbonate, NaCO3, and 4 of common salt. Natural sulphate occurs in an anhydrous condition as thenardite, Na2SO4, at Tarapaca, Chile, and in the rock-salt deposits at Espartinas near Aranjuez, Spain. Hydrated sulphates occur at several localities in the province of Madrid and in other provinces of Spain, and at Mühlingen in Aargau, and copious deposits of glauberite, the double sulphate of sodium and calcium, are met with in the salt-mines of Villarrubia in Spain, at Stassfurt, and in the province of Tarapaca, Chile, &c. A native nitrate of soda is obtained in great abundance in the district of Atacama and the province of Tarapaca,
