Gog and Magog

Gog and Magog (Hebrew: גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג; Arabic: يَأْجُوج وَمَأْجُوج) appear in the Book of Genesis, the Book of Ezekiel, the Book of Revelation, and the Qur'an. They are variously presented as men, supernatural beings (giants or demons), national groups, or lands. Gog and Magog occur widely in mythology and folklore.
==Biblical references==
Magog appears in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10:2 as the eponymous ancestor of a people or nation:
:The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras
Gog is listed as a descendant of Reuben (one of the sons of patriarch Jacob) in the 5th century BCE 1 Chronicles 5: 3, 4.
"Gog" and "Magog" appear together in the Book of Ezekiel, 38:2-3:
:38:2. Son of man, set thy face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
:3. And you shall say; So said the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.The definitive study on Gog and Magog is likely that of Sverre Bøe, Gog and Magog: Ezekiel 38-39 as Pre-text for Revelation 19,17-21 and 20,7-10 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,2001).
==Identifications==
===In Jewish traditions===
In terms of extra-biblical Jewish tradition, Gog the "prince" has been explained by Rashi, Radak and others as being the king of the nation of Magog, descended from the son Magog of Japthet, the son of Noah. No particular nation is associated with them, nor is any particular territory beyond them being in the north of Israel.See Mikraot Gedolot HaMeor pg 400 Some Biblical scholars believe that Gyges (Ancient Greek: Γυγες), king of Lydia (687 BC-652 BCE), is meant. In Assyrian letters, Gyges appears as Gu-gu, in which case Magog might be his territory in Anatolia; for in Assyrian, māt Gu-gu would be the normal way of designating 'the land of Gugu'.E. Lipiński (1993), "Gyges et Lygdamis: D’après les sources hébraïques et néo-assyriennes", in Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodia 24:65-71.
In his book Antiquities of the Jews, the Jewish historian and scholar Josephus identifies Magog with the Scythians,Flavius, Josephus: "Jewish Antiquities", book 1 chapter 6 page 123. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1930."Antiquities of the Jews", Book I, Chapter 6. From Interhack Library. Retrieved January 31, 2006. but this name seems to have been used generically in antiquity for a number of peoples north of the Black Sea.
The Jewish Talmud and Midrashim also deal with Magog's location, and use the names Gytia (גיתיא) and Germania (גרמניא), identified by later Jewish scholars as Kermania and Sattagydia, currently located in eastern Iran and Balochistan, which is also called Sakastan, meaning "home of the Scythians" (which were named by Josephus as Magogites).
===In Islamic tradition===
Gog and Magog appear in Qur'an sura Al-Kahf (The Cave chapter), 18:83-98, as Yajuj and Majuj (Ya'jūj and Ma'jūj or يجوج و مجوج, in Arabic, Yecüc Mecüc in Turkish transliteration). Some Muslim scholars contend that the Gog in Ezekiel verse 38:2 should be read Yajuj (there is a maqaph (מקף) or hyphen immediately before Gog in the Hebrew version which in some printings looks like the Hebrew letter "yod" or "Y"). The verses state that Dhul-Qarnayn (the one with two hornsTh. Nöldeke, "Beiträge Zur Geschichte Des Alexanderroman", Denkschriften Der Kaiserlichen Akademie Der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Classe, Volume 37, pp. 31,1890 or Two Ages (one who impacts on two ages)) travelled the world in three directions, until he found a tribe threatened by Gog and Magog, who were of an "evil and destructive nature" and "caused great corruption on earth."Quran 18:94 The people offered tribute in exchange for protection. Dhul-Qarnayn agreed to help them, but refused the tribute; he constructed a great wall that the hostile nations were unable to penetrate. They will be trapped there until doomsday, and their escape will be a sign of the end:
The Qur'anic account of Dhul-Qarnayn follows very closely the "Gates of Alexander" story from the Alexander romance, a thoroughly embellished compilation of Alexander the Great's wars and adventures. Since the construction of a great iron gate to hold back a hostile northern people was attributed to Alexander many centuries before the time of Islamic Prophet Muhammad and the recording of the Qur'an, most historians consider Dhul-Qarnayn a reference to Alexander. However, some Muslim scholars reject this attribution, associating Dhul-Qarnayn with some other early ruler, usually Cyrus the Great, but also Darius the Great.Darial Gorge, where the dam most likey was built, is named after Darius I of Persia son of Hystaspes/Goshtâsb also named in old Persian Saga: Esfandiyar/Eskandiar (ie King/shah-- Darya=Xsven-Dariya as written on Behistun Inscriptions) son of Key Gushtasp/Goštâsp. It was this Esfandiyar who built the wall according to "Herodotes of the Arabs" Al-Masudi in his book "Le Praires d'or" I-III, Paris 1962-71 page 479. Darius was the only King ever who attacked the Goths in their homeland according to Jordanes and Herodotus memoralized in the Behistun Inscriptions as the campaign against Overseas Saka (the perthian name of the Goths-Gog), while King Cyrus was killed by in his war against the Goths (Saka) by their Queen Tomyris in Azerbaijan. Gog and Magog are also mentioned in some of the hadith, or sayings of Muhammad, specifically the Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, revered by Muslims.
Fourteenth century Muslim sojourner Ibn Battuta traveled to China on order of the Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq, and encountered a large community of Muslim merchants in the city of Zaitun. He comments in his travel log that "Between it [the city] and the rampart of Yajuj and Majuj is sixty days' travel."Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb and C. F. Beckingham, trans. The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325–1354 (Vol. IV). London: Hakluyt Society, 1994 (ISBN 0904180379), pg. 896 The translator of the travel log notes that Ibn Battuta confused the Great Wall of China with that supposedly built by Dhul-Qarnayn.Gibb, pg. 896, footnote #30
====In Ahmadiyya====
The Ahmadiyya Community present the view that Gog and Magog represent one or more of the European nations. They associate European imperialism after the Age of Discovery with the reference to Gog and Magog's rule at the "four corners of the world" in the Christian Book of Revelation. The Ahmadiyya founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad linked Gog and Magog to the European nations and Russia.The Essence of Islam His son and second successor, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad further expounds the connection between Europe and the accounts of Gog and Magog in the Bible, the Qur'an and the hadith in his work Tafseer-e-Kabeer..Tafseer e Kabeer, English version According to this interpretation of Mahmood Ahmad in his commentary on Surah Al-Kahf (Urdu), Gog and Magog were the descendants of Noah who populated eastern and western Europe long ago,Commentary on Surah Al-Lahab the Scythians.Dictionary of the Qur'an According to Ahmadiyya teachings, the period of the Cold War between the two superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union (identified as Gog and Magog) or the influence of communism and capitalism, the conflict and rivalry between the two and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union all occurred in accordance with the prophecies concerning Gog and Magog.Islam and Communism Ahmadis also cite the folkloric British interpretation of Gog and Magog as giants (see below) as support for their view.Ahmadiya English translation of Quran chapter: that describes Dhul-Qarnain king (Esfandiar or Darius the Great) building the dam at the Caspian Gates (Darial Gorge) to bloc Gog and Magog (the Goths or Caucasian race), Moses travels in Search of Knowledge
=====Affiliation with fire=====
Ahmadis point out that the Arabic words for Gog and Magog i.e. Yajuj and Majuj derive from the root word ajjij (to burn, blaze, hasten) which suggests that Gog and Magog will excel all nations in harnessing fire to their service and shall fight their battles with fire. In his commentary of Surah-Al-Masadd, Mirza Mahmood Ahmad, the Second Ahmadiyya leader has interpreted the two hands of Abu-lahab (the father of flame) as Gog and Magog, the nations opposed to Islam that will ultimately be destroyed by the 'fire' of their own making.Surah A-Lahab Commentary
===In the Alexander Romance===
The older accounts influenced the authors of the Alexander Romance, a late and romanticized account of Alexander the Great's conquests. According to the Romance, Alexander came to a northern land devastated by incursions from barbarian peoples, including Gog and Magog. Alexander defends the land by constructing the Gates of Alexander, an immense wall between two mountains that will stop the invaders until the end times. In the Romance, these gates are built between two mountains in the Caucasus called the "Breasts of the World"; this has been taken as a reference to the historical "Caspian Gates" in Derbent, Russia. Another frequently suggested candidate is the wall at the Darial Gorge in Georgia, also in the Caucasus.
===As Goths===
Ambrose was the first to integrate the Goths in a Christian view of the world. In a treatise, de fide, written in 378 at the request of Emperor Gratian, he took up the issue of the Goths because the Emperor was going to fight them on the Balkans in the Gothic War (376–382). In a comment on he famously wrote: Gog iste Gothus est — "That Gog is the Goth".
In the mid 390's, Jerome did not agree with this assessment. In his comment on , he argued that events had proven Ambrose wrong, and he instead identified the Goths with the Getae of Thrace. Augustine did not agree with Ambrose either. In his The City of God, written as a reaction to the sack of Rome (410) by Alaric I, he explained that Gog and Magog in the Book of Revelation are not a particular people in a particular place, but that they exist all over the world.
In the Getica, written by Jordanes in 551 as an abbreviation of a lost work by Theoderic's chancellor Cassiodorus, Josephus is quoted for connecting Magog to the Scythians and so to the Goths. However, this plays only a minor role in the elaborate origin myth in the Getica.
Isidore of Seville confirmedIsidore's Etymologiae, IX, 2.27, 2.89 that people in his day supposed that the Goths were descended from Japheth's son Magog "because of the similarity of the last syllable", and also mentions the view that they were anciently known as Getae. Many of the mountains peaks in the Caucasian mountains and land areas there retain the place name "Gog" in medieval European and Armenian maps. In the 7th century Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius it is the messianic Last Roman Emperor who fights and destroys Gog and Magog, with divine aid. The 11th century historian Adam of Bremen considered Ezekiel's prophecy to have been fulfilled on the Swedes, a group related to the Goths.Adam of Bremen (2002). History of the Archbishops of Hamburg Bremen. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231125755 pp. 30-1 Johannes Magnus (1488 - 1544) stated that Magog's sons were Sven and Gethar (also named Gog), who became the ancestors of the Swedes and the Goths.Johannes Magnus, Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sveonumque regibus, 1554, I, Chapters 4-5, GMC., Cambridge Mass, oclc 27775895 Queen Christina of Sweden reckoned herself as number 249 in a list of kings going back to Magog.
===As Khazars===
Christian and Muslim writers sometimes associated the Khazars with Gog and Magog. In his 9th century work Expositio in Matthaeum Evangelistam, the Benedictine monk Christian of Stavelot refers to the Khazars as Hunnic descendants of Gog and Magog, and says they are "circumcized and observing all [the laws of] Judaism";Kevin Alan Brook. The Jews of Khazaria. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006. the Khazars were a Central Asian people with a long association with Judaism. The 14th century Sunni scholar Ibn Kathir also identified Gog and Magog with the Khazars who lived between the Black and Caspian Seas in his work Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah (The Beginning and the End).Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidayah wa'l-Nihayah (The Beginning and the End)Ibn Kathir, "Stories of the Prophets", page 54. Riyadh, SA Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 2003 A Georgian tradition, echoed in a chronicle, also identifies the Khazars with Gog and Magog, stating they are "wild men with hideous faces and the manners of wild beasts, eaters of blood".Schultze (1905), p. 23. Another author who has identified this connection was the Arab traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan. In his travelogue regarding his diplomatic mission to elteber (vassal-king under the Khazars), he noted the beliefs about Gog and Magog being the ancestors of the Khazars.Collection of Geographical Works by Ibn al-Faqih, Ibn Fadlan, Abu Dulaf Al-Khazraji, ed. Fuat Sezgin, Frankfurt am Main, 1987
===As Israelites or Jews===
The 14th-century Travels of Sir John Mandeville, a book of fanciful travels, makes a peripheral association between the Jews and Gog and Magog, saying the nation trapped behind the Gates of Alexander comprised the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Additionally, a German tradition claimed a group called the Red Jews would invade Europe at the end of the world. The "Red Jews" became associated with different peoples, but especially the Eastern European Jews and the Ottoman Turks.
===As Mongolians===
Some Muslim scholars including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi and Tibri believe the Qur'anic Gog and Magog are intended to be the Mongols. The Mongols were a serious threat to Muslim power during the Middle Ages, attacking Muslim civilizations, and eventually destroying the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad and the Khwarezmian Empire of Central Asia.
===As Russia===
According to one modern theory of dispensationalist Biblical hermeneutics, Gog and Magog are supposed to represent Russia. The Scofield Reference Bible's notes to Ezekiel claim that "Meshech" is a Hebrew form of Moscow, and that "Tubal" represents the Siberian capital Tobolsk. During the Cold War this identification led Hal Lindsey to claim that the Soviet Union would play a major role in the end times. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union some commentators have attempted to cast some other country in the role of Gog. Apocalyptic author Louis Bauman claimed that the word "Caucasian" came from the Arabic term "gog-i-hisn" for the mountains there which means "fortress of Gog". However, this identification is unanimously rejected by even the most conservative of credentialed biblical scholars working in accredited institutions of higher learning.Block, Daniel I.: The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 25-48 (New International Commentary on the Old Testament). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998. It should be noted that the Scythians, who were identified by Josephus and others as being Magog, lived in what is now Russia and Ukraine.
The legend of Gog and Magog, as well as the land of Rosh, also plays a significant part in the New Chronology of Russian pseudohistorian Anatoly Fomenko.
===In The Travels of Marco Polo===
In The Travels dictated by Marco Polo, Gog and Magog are regions of Tenduk, a province belonging to Prester John, and governed by one George, fourth in descent from the original John. According to this account Gog (locally Ung) is inhabited by a tribe called the Gog, whilst Magog (or Mongul) is inhabited by Tatars.
===As Napoleon in Russia===
During Napoleon Bonaparte's Invasion of Russia some Chasidic rabbis identified this major war and upheaval as "The War of Gog and Magog", which would precede the coming of the Messiah.הנסיון להפוך את נפוליאון לגוג ומגוג "The Attempt to turn Napoleon into Gog and Magog", "Hashem1.net" (Israeli religious website in Hebrew)
==Gog and Magog in Britain==
Given this somewhat frightening Biblical imagery, it is odd that images of Gog and Magog depicted as giants are carried in a traditional procession in the Lord Mayor's Show by the Lord Mayor of the City of London. According to the tradition, the giants Gog and Magog are guardians of the City of London, and images of them have been carried in the Lord Mayor's Show since the days of King Henry V. The Lord Mayor's procession takes place each year on the second Saturday of November.
The Lord Mayor's account of Gog and Magog says that the Roman Emperor Diocletian had thirty-three wicked daughters. He found thirty-three husbands for them to curb their wicked ways; they chafed at this, and under the leadership of the eldest sister, Alba, they murdered them. For this crime, they were set adrift at sea; they were washed ashore on a windswept island, which after Alba was called Albion. Here they coupled with demons, and gave birth to a race of giants, among whose descendants were Gog and Magog.Gog and Magog at the Lord Mayor's Show: official website. Accessed August 3, 2007.
An even older British connection to Gog and Magog appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's influential 12th century Historia Regum Britanniae, which states that Goemagot was a giant slain by the eponymous Cornish hero Corin or Corineus. The tale figures in the body of unlikely lore that has Britain settled by Brutus of Troy and other fleeing heroes from the Trojan War. Corineus is supposed to have slain the giant by throwing him into the sea near Plymouth; Richard Carew notes the presence of chalk figures carved on Plymouth Hoe in his time. Wace (Roman de Brut), Layamon (Brut) (who calls the giant Goemagog), and other chroniclers retell the story, which was picked up by later poets and romanciers. John Milton's History of Britain gives this version:
:The Island, not yet Britain, but Albion, was in a manner desert and inhospitable, kept only by a remnant of Giants, whose excessive Force and Tyrannie had consumed the rest. Them Brutus destroies, and to his people divides the land, which, with some reference to his own name, he thenceforth calls Britain. To Corineus, Cornwall, as now we call it, fell by lot; the rather by him lik't, for that the hugest Giants in Rocks and Caves were said to lurk still there; which kind of Monsters to deal with was his old exercise.
:And heer, with leave bespok'n to recite a grand fable, though dignify'd by our best Poets: While Brutus, on a certain Festival day, solemnly kept on that shore where he first landed (Totnes), was with the People in great jollity and mirth, a crew of these savages, breaking in upon them, began on the sudden another sort of Game than at such a meeting was expected. But at length by many hands overcome, Goemagog, the hugest, in hight twelve cubits, is reserved alive; that with him Corineus, who desired nothing more, might try his strength, whom in a Wrestle the Giant catching aloft, with a terrible hugg broke three of his Ribs: Nevertheless Corineus, enraged, heaving him up by main force, and on his shoulders bearing him to the next high rock, threw him hedlong all shatter'd into the sea, and left his name on the cliff, called ever since Langoemagog, which is to say, the Giant's Leap.
Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion preserves the tale as well:
:Amongst the ragged Cleeves those monstrous giants sought:
:Who (of their dreadful kind) t'appal the Trojans brought
:Great Gogmagog, an oake that by the roots could teare;
:So mighty were (that time) the men who lived there:
:But, for the use of armes he did not understand
:(Except some rock or tree, that coming next to land,
:He raised out of the earth to execute his rage),
:He challenge makes for strength, and offereth there his gage,
:Which Corin taketh up, to answer by and by,
:Upon this sonne of earth his utmost power to try.
===Gog Magog Hills===
The Gog Magog Downs are about three miles south of Cambridge, said to be the metamorphosis of the giant after being rejected by the nymph Granta (i.e. the River Cam). The dowser Thomas Charles Lethbridge claimed to have discovered a group of three hidden chalk carvings in the Gogmagog Hills. This alleged discovery is described at length in his book Gogmagog: The Buried Gods,Gogmagog: The Buried gods in which Lethbridge uses his discoveries to extrapolate a primal deity named 'Gog' and his consort, 'Ma-Gog', which he believed represented the sun and moon. Although his discovery of the chalk figures in the Gogmagog Hills has been dogged by controversy, there are similarities between the name and nature of the purported 'Gog' and the Irish deity Ogma, or the Gaulish Ogmios.
The Cambridge molly side, Gog Magog, take their name from these hills.
==Gog and Magog in Ireland==
Works of Irish mythology, including the Lebor Gabála Érenn (the Book of Invasions), expand on the Genesis account of Magog as the son of Japheth and make him the ancestor to the Irish. His three sons were Baath, Jobhath, and Fathochta. Magog is regarded as the father of the Irish race, and the progenitor of the Scythians, as well as of numerous other races across Europe and Central Asia.
Partholón, leader of the first group to colonize Ireland after the Deluge, was a descendant of Magog. The Milesians, or people of the 5th invasion of Ireland, were also descendants of Magog.
==President George W. Bush on Gog and Magog ==
The French ex-President Jacques Chirac recounted during an interview with the French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice how the U.S. President George Walker Bush asked him in 2003 during a phone conversation for support of the invasion of Iraq.
In Maurice's book Si vous le répétez, je démentirai George W. Bush is documented to have said “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East", "The Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled", and "This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”James A. Haught (2009-07-22). "Agog over Bush's comments on Gog and Magog". Charleston West Virginia Gazette.
The conversation occurred just weeks before the US intervention in Iraq. Bush was attempting, one more time, to convince Chirac to follow in "Operation Just Cause" - an operation in which France had persistently refused to participate.
President Chirac refused to support the invasion, and immediately looked to decode the strange reference. Since George W. Bush belonged to the Evangelical Christian movement, the French executive branch (often simply referred to as "l'Elysée") contacted the closest French equivalent, namely the Protestant movement, who in turn forwarded the request to Thomas Römer, a respected French professor of theology with the University of Lausanne (UNIL). Contacted by the head of the French Protestant Library Service, Prof. Thomas Römer (a specialist in the Old Testament) was asked to write a page on Gog and Magog. He has been quoted"George Bush and the code of Ezekiel" Political section from "Allez Savoir!" number 39, September 2007, (Press of UNIL). as saying "I further learnt in this phone conversation that the President of the United States had mentioned Gog and Magog in a conversation with Jacques Chirac. The discussion related to current affairs in the Middle-East. After having explained that he saw Gog and Magog at work, George W. Bush added that Biblical prophecies were coming true."
==See also==
* 1 Maccabees
* Abomination of Desolation
* Antichrist
* Armageddon
* Bible prophecy
* Day-year principle
* Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
* Olivet discourse
* Prophecy of Seventy Weeks
* Rapture
* The Beast (Bible)
* Two Witnesses
==References==
* BHS refers to the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
* KJV refers to the Authorized King James Version
Category:Christian eschatology
Category:Monarchs of the Hebrew Bible
Category:Hebrew Bible nations
Category:Biblical phrases
Category:Japhetic