Gog
by Sverre Bøe
Category: Religion

The names 'Gog' and 'Magog' are found in the Old Testament, in the Pseud-Epigrapha and the Qumran-writings, in the Targums and in other Jewish texts, in the New Testament, in the wirtings of the Church Fathers, and even in the Koran. In most aof these texts Gog and Magog are persons or nations opposing God's people in the endtime-tribulations.Sverre Boe focuses on John's use of various Gog and Magog traditions in Revelation 19,17-20,10. He assembles all these traditions and also refers to several hundreds of scholarly works on these many texts. He further contributes to the ongoing discussions about the inter-textual relationship between Revelation and the Old Testament. He argues that John used Ezekiel 38-39 extensively, and that there are structural analogies beween Rev. 19,11-22,5 and Ezek. 36-48. Although Sverre Boe does not raise the fundamental questions about the co-called millennium in Rev. 20 as such, he givesmany implications for that issue also. Finally he concludes that Revelation does not see Gog and Magog as Israel's enemies in an ethnic sense, since John seems to universalize his pre-texts to fit the New Testament notion of God's people as comprising Christians of all nations.