Gog and Magog



Gog and Magog are, respectively, the names of a mysterious Biblical land and its people, who feature in apocalyptic prophecy. They appear in the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation. They are also mentioned in the Qur'an as Yajuj-Majuj.

Gagmagog was also a legendary giant who appears in British folklore.

The Biblical Gog and Magog
Ezekiel begins:

Ezekiel 38 and 39 continues to speak of Gog, and that Gog (Lydia) together with Persia from the east, Phut from the west, Kushites from the south, and others, like Gomer and the house of Togarmah from the north, whose identities at this remove are even harder to identify. We are told that Gog dwelt north of Israel, but apart from this direction, there is little else to identify Gog in the passage. Gog and his allies are to be defeated in a mighty bloodbath; according to chapter 39, it will take seven months to bury all the dead.

Gog reappears in, which says:

Here Gog is identified as the land in the four corners of the earth and Gog's attack here is represented as an eschatological event that will occur after the Millennium, and that will be vanquished by divine intervention.

The term "Gog Magog" or "Gogmagog" is simply a clarification which may be understood as "Gog as in those from Gog" and despite apocalyptic attempts to devise scenarios whereby nations associated with Magog will one day attack Israel, Magog is not implied in the literal readings of the biblical texts occurring as nothing more than a reference for which Gog is being mentioned.

The origin of Gog's name remains mysterious. Many Bible scholars believe that (Greek Γυγες), king of Lydia (687-652 BCE), is meant; in Assyrian letters, Gyges appears as Gu-gu; in which case Magog (literally "from Gog") might be his territory in Anatolia. Josephus identifies Magog with Scythians, but this name was used generally in antiquity for any peoples north of the Black Sea.

Dispensationalist eisegesis
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 minor Russian city of Tobolsk. Of course, the Biblical references to Magog were written over a thousand years before the first historical reference to Moscow, but who needs evidence when you can shoehorn a modern place into an ancient document based on the names sounding similar in a third language?

This identification of Gog with Russia, and Cold War tensions with the West and with Israel, led Hal Lindsey to claim that the former Soviet Union would play a major role in end times prophecies. A chapter of his The Late Great Planet Earth bears the title "Russia Is A Gog". Lindsey revised the traditional translations to bolster this view. He notes that in Ezekiel's passage about "the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal", the Hebrew word for "chief" or "head" is rosh (רֹאשׁ). And rosh sort of sounds like Russia. "Meshech" just maybe might be Moscow. "Tubal" is identified with the Russian city which otherwise you probably have never heard of. Therefore, Russia must be the land of Gog.

Ronald Reagan was a believer. In 1971, while governor of California, he told state legislators that:

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, more recent end times prophets have sought to cast Iraq or some other country in the role of Gog. And Russia may yet win back the title and get to be Gog again. If not, it won't be for lack of trying.

Lindsey and other dispensationalists typically place Gog and Magog as combatants in the battle of Armageddon. This actually mucks up the dispensationalist timetables. In the Book of Revelation's account, the war of Gog and Magog takes place at the end of the thousand years of the Millennial kingdom. This places their attack after the Second Coming and the establishment of Jesus' personal rule on Earth.

George W. Bush claimed that one of his military goals in Iraq was to thwart Gog and Magog. This confused the French, among others.

Gog and Magog in Britain
Given this 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. Images of Gog and Magog 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 in 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.

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Gogmagog was a giant who was slain by the eponymous Cornish hero Corin or Corineus. The tale figures in the body of unlikely lore that has Britain settled by "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, 'cause giants can't swim, you know...or stand up in the surf. John Milton's History of Britain gives this version of the story:

There is a minor problem with the chronology of these several tales. If Britain was settled by giants during the Roman Empire, it is hard to imagine the giants being there shortly after the Trojan War.

Michael Drayton's Polyolbion preserves the tale as well:

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).