GOG AND MAGOG:
A people usually identified
with the Scythians. In
Gen. x. 2
the second son of
Japhet, named Magog, stands between Gomer and
Madai. This sets him forth as the representative
of a great people, if not of an entire group of nations
north of Palestine. Since
Togarmah (Armenia) is
mentioned as the last branch of Gomer (the ancient
Kimmerians,
Odyssey, xi.
14; Herodotus, iv. 11
sqq.), a stricter geographical location would place
Magog's dwelling between Armenia and Media,
perhaps on the shores of the Araxes. But the people
seem to have extended farther north across the
Caucasus, filling there the extreme northern horizon
of the Hebrews
(Ezek. xxxviii. 15, xxxix. 2).
This
is the way Meahech and Tubal are often mentioned
in the Assyrian inscriptions (Mushku and Tabal,
Gk. Moschoi and Tibarenoi). Some derive the name
Gog in Ezekiel from the name of the country Magog;
others see in Gog a historical personage for whom
the prophet invented the name of a country, and
find in him the famous king of the Lydians named
Gyges (Gugu in the Assyrian inscriptions), who
reigned about 660 $.c. (so E. Meyer, and Sayc;e,
Higher Criticism, London, 1893, pp. -125-126), or
Gagi, ruler of the country of Sahi (F. Delitzsch, R'o
lag das Parodies f, Leipsic, 1881, pp. 246-247), which
G. Smith identified with that of the Scythiana.
Ezekiel announces a coming inroad by this Gog
which according to the whole description recalls the
inroad of the Scythiane into anterior Asia (about
630
R.c.;
Herodotus i. 103 sqq.; cf.
Jer. vi. 1
sqq.,
especially verses 22-23). According to the general
testimony of classical writers (Herodotus, lEschylus,
Thucydides, Xenophon, Ovid, Arrian) the Scythiana were northern barbarians full of
avarice and
fond of war, had immense troops of cavalry, wore
very efficient armor, and distinguished themselves
as archers, just as is narrated of Magog. These
characteristics induced Ezekiel to conceive of Magog
as in close connection with the Scythians. Josephus
also so identifies them (Ant. L, vi. 1), and after him
Jerome and later writers. The name "Scythiana"
was among the ancients an elastic appellation, and
so was the Hebrew Magog. The inroad of the
hordes of Gog as described by Ezekiel is to fall in
the period when Israel has long returned from
exile
and is quietly enjoying in its own country the salvation its God had granted. This Gog appears as
the leader of the last hostile attack of the worldpowers upon the kingdom of God, of which the
prophets of Israel had spoken
(Ezek. xxxviii. 17;
particularly
Joel iii. 9
sqq.; cf.
Micah iv. 11
sqq.;
Zech. xii. 2
sqq. and xiv.). Ezekiel describes it
more fully. The attack of the enemy brings about
the world-judgment before the walls of Jerusalem.
Then all the world shall know the Lord, all captives
of Israel
among the nations shall be brought back,
and the state of blessing and grace of the people of
God shall be completed. The Apocalypse (xx. 7
sqq.) mentions Gog and Magog whom Satan, un
bound for the last time, brings together after the
millennium from the four corners of the earth to
fight against God's sanctuary and his Church.
Their destruction through fire from heaven pre
cedes the new creation of heaven and earth. In
like manner both nations stand side by side in
Jewish theology (Jerusalem Targum on
Num. xi. 27),
and among the Mohammedans (Koran xviii.
93, xxi. 96).
C. von Orelli.
The name Gog, who is defined in
Ezek. xxxviii. 2, 3,
and xxxix.1, as "prince of Rosh, Meshech and
Tubal," occurs seven times in the Bible, and
Magog five times. In
Ezek. xxxix. 6
Magog is a
mistake for Gog, which appears in the Septuagint
and is demanded by the preceding context. In
xxxviii. 2 the phrase "the land of Magog" is attached ungrammatically to Gog, and is shown by
the
phtase as repeated in verse 3 to be a gloss. The
only other passages in the Old Testament in which
Magog occurs are
Gen. x. 2;
I Chron. i. 5.
It
has been plausibly suggested that Magog is here
miswritten for Gog, as in
Ezek. xxxix. 6,
the copyist having at first overlooked the right word and
after beginning the next one (Madai) rectified his
error without erasing the first letter. Hence the
existence of Magog, which can not be explained or
illustrated from any source, is perhaps more than
doubtful. Cf. B. Stade,
Geschichte des Volkes
Israel, ii.
61-62, Berlin, 1885.
J. F. McCurdy.
Bibliography:
A. H. Sayce,
Higher Criticism and the Monuments,
London, 1894; J. A. Eisenmenger,
Enidecktea
Judenthum, ii.
732 sqq.,
Königsberg, 1711; A. Knobel.
Vblkertafel der Genesis, pp. 60
sqq., Giessen, 1850; F.
Lenormant
Les Origines de l'histoire, ii.
458 sqq., Paris,
1884; J. Böhmer, in ZWT, xl (1897), 321 sqq.; H.
Winckler,
Altorientalische Forschungen, i. 160
sqq., Leipsic, 1898;
DB, ii.
224, iii. 212;
EB, ii.
1747-48; and the
commentaries on Genesis and Ezekiel.
