Dear Meanmon,
The first known mention of the names "Gog" and "Magog" is in the
Bible, as mentioned here, in Ezekiel 38:.
"Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief
prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him;
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the
chief prince of Meshech and Tubal" (Ez, 38:2-3).
[...]
"And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to
cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee
against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be
sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes." (Ez, 38:16).
"Gog" / "Magog", the ultimate enemies, became the source of many
further apocalyptic visions and beliefs. Gog is in fact the king of
Magog (and given the fact that possessive in Hebrew could start with
an "M", it could be "Gog of Gog" / 'from Magog' - which is also the
original Hewish interpertation, not two nations but one, in other
words - all symbolism without any particular land).
In Revelation 20:7 Gog and Magog symbolize the enemies of the Kindgom
of God, Gog being associated with Magog, a son of Japeth (Gen. 10:2).
So, who are Gog and Magog?
The easiest (or most accurate) answer would be "the enemies of God,
who plan to eliminate the righteous". This answer does not indicate on
a specific nation, but on a concept, of God's enemies.
There are, of course, interpretations that do name a nation or a
group, while it seems that they are consistent with the time of
writing:
According to a site that cites the Jewish Talmud, "Magog is identified
by the Talmud as "Gothia," the land of the Goths. The Goths were a
Germanic people, in keeping with the midrashic rendering of Magog as
"Germamia" or "Germania."
(SOURCE: "Succot Significance", Ohr Sameach Yeshiva
<http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/250/Q1/>).
For more interpretations like that, couple of centuries after the
Talmud has been sealed, identifying the Goths as the Gog, see:
CHRONICA PROPHETICA (translated by Kenneth B. Wolf),
<http://www.history.pomona.edu/kbw/h100y/prophchr.htm>.
However, this is only one interpretation. Many apocalyptic sites now
point at Bin Laden, as "Gog". I am quiet certain that all of them were
written ex post facto, and not before 9/11.
Interestingly ebough, one Muslim interpretation, identifies the West
as Gog, that tries to eliminate and fight the Muslims (SOURCE: Islamic
"Jihad", <http://www-scf.usc.edu/~arachea/islam.html>).
This is not the only example, where Gog and Magog receive a very
individualised interpretation, which depends on the situation of the
group at that time. In the Middle Ages, the Christians saw the Mongols
as Gog and Magog. The Jews, who lived persecuted under Christian
regimes, developed a Millennial hope that the Mongols are the lost
Jewish tribes, coming to save the Jews from the oppression they
suffered under the Christian rule (SOURCE: Harold Brodsky, "Maps,
Mongols, and the Jewish Millennium"
<http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Diversity/Specific/Race/Specific/Jewish_Studies_Resources/Scholarly%20Papers/MongolsPt1.pdf>
- please note that Part 2 was not published yet). The Gog of one
group, is the saviour of another in this instance.
Josephus indetifies Gog as the Scythians, an Aryan nation who lived in
Asia Minor and the Caucasus. Again, they were enemies of the Romans,
his masters. In addition, as the " Encylodaedia Biblica" mentions,
there are other interpretations that point to the source of the Gog in
the Caucasus (See: <http://www.cwru.edu/UL/preserve/Etana/encyl_biblica_q-z/scrip-serah.pdf>).
One anti-Russian interpreter finds Gog to be the Russians, coming from
the Caucasus: "A few centuries after Ezekiel, when the Armenians came
to conquer Tubal, there was noted within the Kartli kingdom a
province, known to the Greeks as "Gogarene"...which may have been what
the Armenians called, "Gugar" (mountain of Gog?). Solid sources (e.g.
Smith's Bible Dictionary) tell us that "Gog" itself means "mountain,"
and Gogarene was located in the lesser/southern Caucasus mountain
range. Because Gogarene was on the northern slopes of the lesser
Caucasus, it was between the two Caucasus ranges, where also T'bilisi
was situated.
My conclusion is, not merely that the people of Gog had lived among
the mountains of Tubal, but that they had conquered Tubal...and only
as a result of that had they settled--militarily--among the
Tibarem...in Gogarene. After all, Ezekiel does tell us that Gog was
the ruler of Tubal, and such a statement can certainly imply an
invasion of Tubal. Gogarene, by the way, was situated south of
T'bilisi, between the Kartli kingdom and the Armenians.
If not faulty, a splendid piece of evidence supporting Gog's rulership
position in Caucasia is in the term "Caucasus" itself, because "Gog"
sounds like "Cauc," and because "Caucusus" is said to sound like
"Gog's fort." But all this doesn't give us the identity of the Gogi
peoples; it only serves to show by extra-Biblical means that Gog came
to rule over the Caucasian peoples.
[....]
Because we can locate a portion of Gog's empire in Tubal--modern
Georgia--some writers are already insinuating that out of Georgia will
come the Biblical Gog. It is interesting that the letters g-o-g can be
found in the first five letters of "Georgia," and one must wonder if
this is merely coincidental. In fact, modern Georgians refer to the
Gogites as "Gogi," wherefore "the land of Gog" can easily modify to
"Gogia," which does appear very much like "Georgia." However, it is
reported that "Georgia," which is not what Georgians themselves call
their country, is derived from the ancient Kurg peoples. In any case,
the empire of Gog included more than Tubal, wherefore we had best not
jump to hasty conclusions regarding the end-time importance of
Georgia.
It is very interesting that, prior and up to Ezekiel's day, the Mosch
or Mesch people--clearly evoking "Meschech"--were situated just to the
west of Gogarene in association with the Moschian mountains (in
extreme north-eastern Turkey south of modern Batumi and north of
Erzurum). A major center inhabited there by the Mosch(i) people was
Mazaca, another term evoking "Mescech." The Moschi--a very barbaric
people--originated in the same depression as the Tibarem, between the
two Caucasus ranges, explaining why Scripture couples Tubal together
with Meschech in every case but one."
(SOURCE: PRE-TRIBULATION PLANNING FOR A POST-TRIBULATION RAPTURE,
Tribwatch.com , <http://www.tribwatch.com/gog.htm>).
Regarding this interpretation, see also "Magog" from
ChristianAnswers.net
<http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/magog.html>
Marco Polo also refered to being in the Land of Gog and Magog - but it
is not clear to which part of the world he meant, when he reported
visiting the Land of Gog and Magog.
On top of all of those interpretations, something interesting, that
you probably know if you're a Briton: "two legendary giants, Gog and
Magog, mythical warriors with a prominent role in British history." -
The Gog and Magog Hills, north of London, are not called after the
Biblical term, but after these two demons/warriors. I think, in that
aspect, that the answer to Gog and Magog (except for theological
interpretations), lays in linguistic and cross-cultural esearch of
ancient world myths, as these terms were probably more widely used
than we would like to think.
I hope this answered your question. Naturally, I searched the web for
"Gog" and "Magog". Please contact me if you need any clarification on
this answer before you rate it. |
