SOPHONIAS (Heb. Şēphanjāh "Yahweh Protects"). - One of the "minor prophets," ninth in the series, who carried on his activity in the time of Josiah (ca. 638-609 B.C.), probably already before the reform (622), since he laments the existence of idolatrous practices (Soph. 1:4-6, 12). He was therefore a contemporary of Jeremiah ("called" to the prophetic office in the 13th year of Josiah, ca. 627-26) and with him inaugurated the new life of prophecy, which for fifty years, since the time of Manasseh, had been lacking.
The memory of King Manasseh (ca. 689-641), Ashurbanipal of Assyria (ca. 669-626), Amon, father of Josiah (641-639), and of the events alluded to there, of the vocation of Jeremiah, of the reform of Josiah, to which may be added the end of Assyria (612-609), is sufficient to characterize the historical background. It is an era of great political and spiritual renewals; Assyrian hegemony prevails, cultural as well (astral cults of Mesopotamian origin are widespread, Soph. 1:3-5; foreign fashions, ibid. 1:8; impiety, ibid. 3:3-4). The forces of Yahwistic nationalism devote themselves to the salutary work of reform, with the unanimous consent, unfortunately ephemeral, of government, priesthood and prophecy.
The arrangement of the book of Z. is that common to most prophetic writings. First the negative aspects, then the positive ones; that is, it follows a literary scheme. One cannot therefore deduce that the activity of the prophet Z. ceased while the good beginning of the Josianic reform gave reason for hope; and besides, the writings that we have do not require to be distributed over a long span of time. The final optimistic vision is the corrective to the sad depiction of reality, dictated by hope in God, linked to the messianic sense.
In the first part, which occupies almost the whole book (Soph. 1:2 - 3:8), one feels the realistic touch and there expresses itself a soul most highly endowed with the "prophetic" spirit. The book begins by announcing a "judgment of Judah" (ibid. 1:2 - 2:3) as a "day of Yahweh," which is among the darkest of all those announced by the prophets of every age ("a day of wrath and anguish, of tumult and crash"; ibid. 1:15; the beginning of the Dies irae is inspired by it); there emerges the motif of an enemy invasion, in which is perhaps portrayed the permanent fear of the Assyrian colossus. There is then briefly described the "judgment on the nations" (ibid. 2:4-15), which involves neighbors and distant peoples: Philistines, Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, the Assyrians themselves; finally a particular judgment for Jerusalem (ibid. 3:1-8), whose corruption is pointed out. The messianic finale (ibid. 3:9-20) joyfully announces the purification and universalization of religion and moral conduct (ibid. 3:9-13) and the salvation of Zion (ibid. 3:14-20).
Three other figures of the Old Testament bear the name Z.: a Levite, ancestor of the musician Heman (1 Chron. 6:21 [Vulg. 36]); a high priest, before whom Jeremiah was denounced as a false prophet (Jer. 21:1; 29:25, 29; 37:3), who was later deported and killed after the capture of Jerusalem (ibid. 52:24 ff.; 2 Kings 25:18 ff.); a citizen of Jerusalem (Zech. 6:10, 14).
Bibliography5 works
Giovanni Rinaldi