Ancient Greek

Verb

σοφίζω • ‎(sophízō)

1. I make wise, instruct
   • New Testament, Second Epistle to Timothy 3.15

     τὰ δυνάμενά σε σοφίσαι εἰς σωτηρίαν διὰ πίστεως

     which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith

   1. (passive) I become wise, clever, skilled
      • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 649

        οὔτε τι ναυτιλίης σεσοφισμένος οὔτε τι νηῶν

        though I have no skill in sea-faring nor in ships

      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cynegeticus 13.6

        ὅτι ἐν τοῖς ὀνόμασι σοφίζονται, οὐκ ἐν τοῖς νοήμασιν

        because they profess wisdom of words and not of thoughts

   2. (middle voice) I teach myself, learn
2. (middle voice) I practice an art; I am subtle; I speculate
   • 405 BCE, Euripides, The Bacchae 200

     οὐδὲν σοφιζόμεσθα τοῖσι δαίμοσιν.

     We use no subtleties in dealing with the gods.

   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, The Statesman 299.b

     καὶ σοφιζόμενος ὁτιοῦν περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα

     or to be indulging in any speculation whatsoever on such matters

   1. (with accusative) I devise skillfully
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 8.27

        ὁ Τελλίης οὗτος σοφίζεται αὐτοῖσι τοιόνδε.

        Tellias devised a stratagem for them:

      • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 77

        ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δεῖ σοφισθῆναι

        this is the very thing one must gain by craft

   2. (with accusative of person) I deceive
      • 75 CE, Josephus, The Jewish War 4.2.3

        τοιούτοις ἐσοφίζετο τὸν Τίτον

        Thus did this man put a trick upon Titus

Inflection

Derived terms

Related terms

References

• σοφίζω in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• «σοφίζω» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• “G4679”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979