Gog and Magog
The tradition of
Gog and
Magog begins in the
Bible with the reference to Magog, son of Japheth, in the
Book of Genesis and continues in cryptic prophecies in the
Book of Ezekiel, which are echoed in the
Book of Revelation. The ambiguity of this tradition cannot be overstated. Even the nature of these entities differs greatly between sources. They are variously presented as men, supernatural beings (
giants or
demons), national groups, or lands. Gog and Magog appear in the
Qur'an as
Ya'jooj Wa Ma'jooj (Arabic يأجوج و مأجوج,
Yecüc-Mecüc in the Turkish spelling) and occur widely in mythology and folklore.
Magog in Genesis
The first occurrence of "Magog" in the Bible is in the "Table of Nations" in
Genesis 10, where Magog is the
eponymous ancestor of a people or nation (without any accompanying apocalyptic symbolism, or mention of Gog, although, as mentioned above, "Magog" may mean "the land of Gog")::2.
The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras:3.
The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.:: (Genesis 10:2-3)In this occurrence Magog is clearly the name of a person, although in the
anthropology proposed by Genesis, ethnic groups and nations are founded by, and usually named after, their founding ancestors. The names of Gomer, Tubal, Meshech, and Togarmah also occur in Ezekiel.
Gog and Magog in Ezekiel
The earliest known reference to "Gog" and "Magog" together is also in the Bible: :2.
"Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of 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, the head of Meshech and Tubal.::(
Ezekiel 38:2-3
Judaica Press)Chapter 38 continues addressing Gog::10.
Thus says the Lord "On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind and you will make an evil plan::11.
"You will say, "I will go against a land of unwalled villages; ..."":12.
"To take plunder and booty...":: (Ezekiel 38:10-12)Here it is not clear (in the Hebrew) whether Gog or Magog are people or places, and different identifications have been made. These are discussed after the text itself. The Interlinear Bible (Hebrew - Greek - English) states 2. as:
"Son of man, set your face toward Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; and prophesy concerning him." (Jay P. green, Sr., 1986)
Ezekiel (38 and 39) says that Gog will be defeated. Addressing Gog and Magog, God describes how the attacks will be repelled (Ezekiel 39:1-16). The army of Gog and Magog primarily includes people from the nations of
Gog,
Gomer,
Tubal,
Meshech, and the house of
Togarmah from the North, the latter of which are mentioned as descendants of Japheth in Genesis (
q.v.).
They will be joined by
Persians from the East,
Phut from the West,
Kushites from the South, and others. We are told that Gog dwelt north of Israel, but there is little else to identify Gog in the passage. Gog and his allies are to attack "a land of unwalled villages" to collect booty, but before attacking Israel itself will be reduced to a "sixth" of their size (Ezekiel 39:3). Their reduced army will be destroyed in Israel, their dead buried in the
Valley of Hamon-Gog for all to see and comment on (39:15-17).
God describes the aftermath of the battle later in the same chapter, addressing "thou, son of Man":
17.
...,thus says the Lord, "Speak to every bird and every beast of the field, "Assemble yourselves and come,..."":18. ''" You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams and lambs, of goats and bulls, all them fatlings of Bashan":: (Ezekiel 39:17-18 KJV)
Gog and Magog in the Book of Revelation
Gog and Magog are mentioned again in
Revelation 20:7-8:
7.
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. :8.
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (KJV)
Here, Gog and Magog are identified as the nations in the four corners of the earth, and their attack is represented as an
eschatological crisis after the
Millennium, to be vanquished by divine intervention. The language of Gog and Magog's destruction is very similar to that of their mention in Ezekiel.
Identifications
Ezekiel's identification of Gog and Magog is confusing. Verse 38:2 could identify Gog
or Magog as a person, the other as a land. The Greek version of that verse identifies Gog as a land, Magog as a person. In both versions, however, verse 38:3 unambiguously identifies Gog as a person, the prince of Meshech and Tubal. The King James translation is given above; it follows the interpretation of verse 38:3.
In terms of
extra-biblical Jewish tradition, Gog the 'prince' has been explained being one of the 70 national
angels — of whom all except one,
Michael (the guardian angel of Israel), are
fallen angels. According to this interpretation, Gog is the angel of a nation called Magog (literally meaning "of Gog" or "from Gog"). Gog in this view represents an apocalyptic coalition of nations arrayed against Israel. Some Biblical scholars believe that
Gyges (
Greek Î"υγες), king of
Lydia (
687 BC-
652 BC), is meant; in
Assyrian letters, Gyges appears as
Gu-gu; in which case Magog might be his territory in
Anatolia.
Josephus identifies Magog with the
Scythians, but this name seems to have been used generically in
antiquity for a number of peoples north of the
Black Sea.
According to a tradition 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 and the retreat of Russia from the role of a military superpower, some commentators have attempted to cast
Iraq or some other country in the role of Gog.
Beyond the Biblical tradition, Gog is portrayed as "the country at the four corners of the world". This is commonly identified as Central
Eurasia.
Legends present in countries throughout
Eastern Europe and the
Middle East mention that massive
copper,
iron, or
brass gates were built on its southern borders with the
Persian Empire. This would support the identification of these "four corners of the world" with Central Eurasia, the westernmost of these gates, according to some variants of the legend, having been built at
Derbent. In the
Alexander Romance and elsewhere, these gates are called the "
Gates of Alexander" or "
Alexander's Wall", after their supposed builder
Alexander the Great.
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. In his history
The Origin and Deeds of the Goths from 551, the
Goth writer
Jordanes identified
Gog with the
Goths [
1]. The 11th century historian
Adam of Bremen considered Ezekiel's prophecy to have been fulfilled on the Swedes.
[Adam of Bremen (2002). History of the Archbishops of Hamburg Bremen. Columbia University Press. ISBN 023112601 pp. 30-1 ]Some legends of
Hungarians and certain
Celtic peoples say they are descendants of Magog.
Poseidonius, for example, mentions that the
Cimmerians, considered to be the original ancestors in Celtic traditions, were derived from
gug and
guas. In
Irish tradition, Magog was supposed to have had a grandchild called
Heber, who spread throughout the
Mediterranean. The
Greeks called such people
Iberes mentioning that they were refugees from
Atlantis who had come to settle the
Caucasus. The result is that Gog — the land of the four corners of the world — has also been identified as lands somewhere in the oceans surrounding the
Old World, i.e., the
New World.
The
Kalki Purana, one of the minor
puranas in
Hinduism, mention a similar
Kok and
Bikok who will fight against
Kalki. Modern scholarship dates the puranas to the latter half of the
first millennium AD.
|
A painting by Qasim, 16th century, illustrating the building of the wall |
In the
Qur'an, in
Surat al-Kahf (83-98), it is written that
Dhul-Qarnayn (the one with two horns) — who due ambiquity has been conjectured to refer to various historical figures including
Cyrus the Great, and
Alexander the Great — travelled in three directions, meeting villagers who complained about Yajooj and Majooj in each. First, to where the twin suns rise (to the east); second, to where the twin suns set (to the west); and a third direction, which is not specified in the
Qur'an, between two mountain chains where a folk were living on the foothill, and to the north dwelt
Yajooj and
Majooj (sometimes transliterated from
Arabic as
Yajuj and
Majuj), who continuously attacked the southern people. They are believed to be two tribes of wild and destructive nature.
When Dhul-Qarnayn arrived at the third location, that folk complained about the tribes and offered Dhul-Qarnayn a tribute to build a wall between them so that Yajooj and Majooj would not bother them anymore. Believing his reward would be from God, Dhul-Qarnayn refused the tribute but agreed to build the wall. He constructed the wall out of iron and then poured melted copper over it, making it difficult to climb or dig under. This stopped
Yajooj and
Majooj from threatening the people for a certain time. There is an opinion that this wall might be in the
Caucasus Mountains at
Dariel Pass. According to the Islamic scholar, Mufti Ebrahim Desai, they are situated in a land of ice.
The Yajooj and Majooj attempt to break through the
iron wall every day, but when night falls and they are near escape, they stop and say to each other "we will finish it tomorrow". The next day when they wake up, they see that all the work they had done had become undone while they slept. This scenario continues every day until the day they say "we will finish tomorrow,
in sha allah" (
in sha allah meaning by the will of God) before they sleep, and thus when they awaken, they will finish their work and break out. It is also said that when the worker says "in sha Allah", he will not be saying it because he believes in Allah (God), but because he is having a conversation with his son who will be named "InshaAllah".
They are also mentioned in the
sayings of the prophet of Islam,
Muhammad, as the sign of the nearness of the
Doomsday, and that they will destroy the civilizations (The Books of
Sahih Al Bukhari and
Sahih Al Muslim).
"But when Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj are let loose and they rush headlong down every height (or advantage)" (Quran 21:97) They will emerge during the reign of
Jesus, and will be vast in number [
2] drinking up the waters of the
Tigris and
Euphrates. It is said that
Allah (God) divided mankind into ten parts- nine tenths constitute Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj while the remaining tenth constitutes the rest of mankind. Some Muslim Scholars like
Abul kalam Azad,
Sayed Moududi and Tibri believe that they were
Mongols, who were always raiding and destroying the Persian and Indian civilisations, and finally destroyed the Muslim dynasty of
Baghdad and
Khwarzam (central Asia).
The conquest and the fate of Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj in the Hadith is quite similar to the Martian invaders' conquest and fate in the fictional story of
The War of the Worlds. Both armies are unstoppable by the humans, only to be killed by small creatures. It's unknown if H.G. Wells was inspired by the Hadith or such similar stories for the story.
Khazar Jews
According to Islamic scholar
Ibn Kathir, the tribes of Gog and Magog lived in between the Black Sea and the Caspian [
3]. Many argue that this is in reference to the
Khazars that prospered in that region until the 9th century, where almost all of them converted to
Judaism. There were claims that the descendants of Khazars moved into Poland and Germany and are modern day
Ashkenazi Jews, though this view has largely been disconfirmed
[The Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East by Almut Nebel, Dvora Filon, Bernd Brinkmann, Partha P. Majumder, Marina Faerman, Ariella Oppenheim (The American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 69, number 5. pp. 1095-1112) (brief)]. Others say that the Ashkenazim are of the
Lost Tribes of Israel.
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
Tartars. This may imply that the author had heard of the Tartars of Mongolia and was multiplying their attributes and territories, as well as mixing in the Prester John legend.
 |
Gog and Magog lifting Paddy out of the mire |
Given this somewhat frightening Biblical imagery, it is somewhat 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 Lord Mayor, the giants Gog and Magog are traditional 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.
An even older British connection to Gog and Magog appears in
Geoffrey of Monmouth's influential
12th century Historia Regum Britanniae, which states that
Gogmagog 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 the
Trojan soldier
Brutus and other fleeing heroes from the
Trojan War. Corineus is supposed to have slain the giant by throwing him into the sea near
Plymouth.
Wace,
Layamon, 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
Polyolbion 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.
The
Gog Magog Hills 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
T.C. 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 [
4], 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.
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.
Partholon, 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.
General usage
*
Gog and Magog appear as a pair of statues in the Royal Arcade which runs from Little Collins Street to
Bourke Street, between
Swanston Street and
Elizabeth Street in
Melbourne,
Australia. The two seven-foot figures are carved from pine and stand alongside a clock and bells. They represent the mythological figures who were conscripted by the
Trojans to fight against the ancient Britons (according to the information under the clock). They are well over 100 years old and strike the time on the hour and each quarter-hour.
*
Magog is a town and a township, and the
Magog River is a river, in the
Memphrémagog Regional County Municipality area of the
Eastern Townships region of
Quebec,
Canada. Note that "Magog" stems from for "Mephremagog," the native Abenaki word for "Beautiful Waters."
*
Gog and
Magog are two of the traditional monikers taken by newly-inducted members of the
Skull and Bones Society.:On an initiate's first day in the Skull and Bones society, they are assigned a name, which they will be known as for the rest of their life. Two of the names that are regularly used are: Magog, which is assigned to the initiate with the most experience with the opposite sex; Gog, which is assigned to the least sexually experienced.
Books
*
Magog is the name of a book by Andrew Sinclair, published by Harper & Row in 1972. In the
Time magazine review of the book, Gog & Magog are described as "an odd couple whose meaning is obscured by the mists of prehistory", as well as "London's janitors" and "the survivors of a race of defeated giants".
* In
Madeleine L'Engle's novel
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the world is threatened with nuclear destruction by a Magog.
* Gog and Magog are the two porcelain dogs at Patty's Place in
L. M. Montgomery's
Anne of the Island.
* In
Angie Sage's novel,
Magyk, magogs are wormlike, one-eyed creatures that live underground. The give off a horrible smelling slime that burns.
* The stanza "Armageddon did the job / Gog & Magog Gog & Magog" is featured repeatedly in the second part of the poem, 'Hum Bom', by
Allen Ginsberg.
Films, TV and popular culture
* In the
Heroes of Might and Magic computer game series, Gogs and bigger Magogs are fireball casting
demons.
* In the
computer game Strange Adventures in Infinite Space,
Gog and
Magog are the names of, respectively, a giant
blue star and a
red giant star.
*
Magog appear as fatally parasitic aliens in the television show,
Andromeda. Magog eat other sentients and often each other. They reproduce by infecting hosts with their
larvae that then mature and hatch, killing the host.
* The
Firesign Theatre comedy group once performed an ersatz television commercial (from their album
Everything You Know Is Wrong) entitled
Magog Brothers Atlantis Carpet Reclaimers.*
Magog is the name of a violent
anti-hero appearing in
DC Comics'
Kingdom Come. A villain named
Gog appears in its sequel series,
The Kingdom.
*
Gog is the name of a 1954 Color 3D
science fiction film directed by
Herbert L. Strock. Its poster tag line was:
"Built to serve man... It could think a thousand times faster! Move a thousand times faster! Kill a thousand times faster ...Then suddenly it became a Frankenstein of steel!"* "Gog / Magog (In Bromine Chambers)" is a two-part 17 minute long track on
Peter Hammill's 1974 album
In Camera, narrated by the mythological Gog himself. The second half of the piece is a long
musique concrète sequence.
* Gog and Magog were the names of the super-computer and robot, respectively, built by Doc Terror in the final 5-parter of the
Centurions animated series, "Man or Machine."
* Gog and Magog are characters featured in Jason Lindner's one-man play "The Gog/Magog Project".
* In the
Doctor Who serial,
The Stones of Blood, The Doctor encounters the Ogri, Silicon based stone creatures from the planet Ogros, and implys that their names are Gog, Magog and Ogris.
* In the Genesis piece "
Supper's Ready" at the start of the "Apocalypse in 9/8" section, Peter Gabriel sings "With the Guards of Magog swarming around / The pied piper takes his children underground..."
*
History of London*
Gog*
Magog*
Gog Magog Downs*
Gates of Alexander*
Guildhall, London* BHS refers to the
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia* KJV refers to the
King James Bible (the "V" stands for
version)
*
Yajuj wa Ma'juj (Gog and Magog) according to Islam*
Gog and Magog in the City of London's Lord Mayor's Show*
Gog and Magog (or Yajooj-Majooj)*
The History of Gog and Magog, the Champions of London, etext of 1819 original, anonymous, attributed to "
Robin Goodfellow"
*
The Magog Invasion, by Chuck Missler
*
Christian website purporting to explain Gog and Magog*
Kabbalistic perspective on the war of Gog u'Magog
