reveals that there would be a waiting period for Jesus Christ before his Father would send him forth to “go subduing in the midst of [his] enemies.” It therefore appears that the fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel 7:13, 14 comes, not at the time of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven, but at the time of his being authorized by God to take action against all opposers in vigorous expression of his kingly authority. The ‘coming of the Son of man to the Ancient of Days,’ then, apparently corresponds in time with the situation presented at Revelation 12:5-10, when the symbolic man-child is brought forth and caught up to God’s throne, then war breaks out in heaven, and the cry goes up: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ.”

Further prophetic visions in Revelation (17:12-14; 19:11-21) show the exercise of full regnal power by the Messianic King over “peoples, national groups and languages” (Dan. 7:14) and hence the one “like a son of man” at Revelation 14:14 undoubtedly also represents Jesus Christ, as does the one so described at Revelation 1:13.—Compare Revelation 14:14-20; 19:15; and 1:13-18; see KINGDOM OF GOD (The Kingdom Takes Up Full Power).

As to the ‘Son of man’s coming on the clouds’ and being seen by “every eye” (Matt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7), see CLOUD (Illustrative Usage); EYE; PRESENCE.

SOPATER

(Sopʹa·ter).

A Beroean Christian associated with Paul in Greece at the time of Paul’s third missionary journey. Sopater was a son of Pyrrhus and may be the same person as Sosipater in Rome, to whom Paul sent greetings.—Acts 20:2-6; Rom. 16:21.

SOPHERETH

(So·pheʹreth) [scribe].

Apparently an ancestor of a family (“the sons of Sophereth”) among the “sons of the servants of Solomon” who returned from the Babylonian exile. (Ezra 2:55; Neh. 7:57) Ezra puts a definite article in front of So·pheʹreth, making it Has·so·pheʹreth, “the scribes.” Some suggest that the sons of Sophereth were a staff of scribes or copyists, as is suggested by the meaning of the name. The meanings of some of the other names in the list might allow for reference to an occupation, while others do not.

SORCERER

See MAGIC AND SORCERY.

SOREK, TORRENT VALLEY OF

(Soʹrek) [choice red vine].

Location of the home of Delilah, where Samson was seduced to reveal the secret of his strength, leading to his capture, blinding and imprisonment by the Philistines. (Judg. 16:4-21) The name Sorek seems to be preserved in that of Khirbet Suriq, about sixteen miles (26 kilometers) W of Jerusalem, situated on the N side of the Wadi es-Sarar and opposite the proposed location of Beth-shemesh. A little over three miles (4.8 kilometers) W of Suriq this wadi, joined by others, becomes a broad fertile valley. This particular section of Wadi es-Sarar, cutting across the Shephelah westwardly toward the Mediterranean Sea, is apparently the Biblical valley of Sorek. Much of this region then, as today, was probably suited for vineyards (a possible reason for its name). The Philistine wagon that returned the ark of the covenant to the Israelites evidently followed the torrent valley of Sorek from Ekron on the road to Beth-shemesh. (1 Sam. 5:10; 6:10-12) The Jerusalem-to-Jaffa railroad currently uses this route.

SORREL

Any of a number of plants having a sour taste due to the presence of oxalic acid in their juicy leaves and stems. The radical leaves of common sorrel grow in a cluster. Shaped like an arrow at the base, the somewhat oval leaves measure about four inches (10 centimeters) in length. The flower stalks may attain a height of about two feet (.6 meter) or more. Anciently, the Israelites mixed sorrel with the fodder for their cattle and asses.—Isa. 30:24.

SOSIPATER

(So·sipʹa·ter) [saving one’s father].

A companion of Paul when in Corinth, whom the apostle described as ‘my relative,’ and whose greetings are sent from Corinth in Paul’s letter to the Romans. (Rom. 16:21) He is possibly the same person as Sopater, mentioned at Acts 20:4 as associated with Paul in Greece.

SOSTHENES

(Sosʹthe·nes).

The presiding officer of the Corinthian synagogue during Paul’s visit in Corinth; possibly the successor of Crispus, who became a Christian. When Proconsul Gallio declined to hear the Jews’ charges against Paul’s religious teaching, the crowd took Sosthenes and beat him. Certain manuscripts say the crowd was composed of anti-Jewish “Greeks”; others read “Jews.” Both, however, are interpolations, since the three oldest manuscripts do not tell us which partisan group attacked Sosthenes.—Acts 18:8, 12-17.

It is possible that this bad experience suffered by Sosthenes led to his conversion to Christianity and later association with Paul at Ephesus, for in the salutations at the outset of his first letter to the Corinthians Paul includes those of a certain Sosthenes (a not-too-common Greek name), speaking of him as “our brother.”—1 Cor. 1:1.

SOTAI

(Soʹtai) [from verb meaning “fall away”].

One of Solomon’s servants whose offspring returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in 537 B.C.E.—Ezra 2:55; Neh. 7:57.

SOUL

To understand the meaning of the Biblical terms generally rendered “soul” it is necessary to set aside many, perhaps most, of the meanings attributed to the English word and allow the original-language terms (Heb., neʹphesh [נֶפֶשׁ]; Gr., psy·kheʹ [ψυχή]) as used in the Scriptures to supply the meaning. This is because the connotations that the English “soul” commonly carries in the minds of most persons are not in agreement with the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words as used by the inspired Bible writers.

This fact has steadily gained wider acknowledgment. Back in 1897, in the Journal of Biblical Literature (Vol. XVI, p. 30), Professor C. A. Briggs, as a result of detailed analysis of the use of neʹphesh, observed: “Soul in English usage at the present time conveys usually a very different meaning from נפש [neʹphesh] in Hebrew, and it is easy for the incautious reader to misinterpret.”

More recently, when the Jewish Publication Society of America issued a new translation of the Torah or first five books of the Bible, the editor-in-chief, Dr. H. M. Orlinsky of Hebrew Union College, stated (New York Times, October 12, 1962) that the word “soul” had been virtually eliminated from this translation because, “the Hebrew word in question here is ‘Nefesh.’” He added that: “Other translators have interpreted it to mean ‘soul,’ which is completely inaccurate. The Bible does not say we have a soul. ‘Nefesh’ is the person himself, his need for food, the very blood in his veins, his being.”

The difficulty lies in the fact that the meanings popularly attached to the English word “soul” stem primarily, not from the Hebrew or Christian Greek Scriptures, but from ancient Greek philosophy, actually pagan religious thought. Greek philosopher Plato, for example, quotes Socrates as saying: “The soul [at death] . . . departs to the invisible world—to the divine and immortal and rational: thither arriving, she lives in bliss and is released from the error and folly of men . . . and forever dwells . . . in company with the gods.”—Phaedo, Vol. 2, pp. 73, 103.

In direct contrast with the Greek teaching of the psy·kheʹ (“soul”) as being immaterial, intangible, invisible and immortal, the Scriptures show that both psy·kheʹ and neʹphesh, as used with reference to earthly creatures, refer to that which is material, tangible, visible and mortal.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967, Vol. 13, p. 467)