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of the south" (the coming leader of
an Arab-Moslem confederacy), Gog
is one of the four major end-time
personalities specifically mentioned
in the Bible.
Gog is also a people, apparently a
tribal subdivision of Magog. The
· original Gog was probably a son or
grandson of Magog.
Ezekiel describes the end-time
Gog as being
of
the land of Magog.
How, then, do we identify Magog
today? The Table of Natíons lists
Magog as the second son of Japheth,
son of Noah.
Japheth's descendánts a re pri–
marily Eurasian peoples. They in–
elude the East Slavs-Great Rus–
sians, Little Russians, White Rus–
sians- and also the Mongoloid
peoples of Asia outside of the Near
East and the subcontinent of India .
Japheth's son Magog gradually
become divided into two main
branches. The western, Caucasian–
looking branch is identified by the
first-century Jewish historian Jose–
phus and others as among the
nomadic Scythian tribes north of the
Black Sea in what today is the Soviet
Union.
But there was also an eastern or
Mongoloid branch of the Scythians
that anciently inhabited the plains
stretching all the way to north China.
The Venetian traveler Marco Polo,
who visited the Mongol realms in the
13th century, identified Magog as
being part of the Munguls or Mon–
gols. Other histories identify Magog
with the Mandarin-speaking north–
ern Chinese. (The southern Chinese,
incidentally, are an Asian branch of
Javan, another of Japheth's sons.)
Which branch of Magog is in–
tended in the prophecy of Ezekiel?
The Magog of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is
pictured as a people of a
northern
Iocality- i.e. , the vast lands of the
Soviet Union. Ezékiel describes Gog
as coming "from the
north parts"
(39:2). The Soviet Union is far to the
north of Palestine.
Moreover , Gog is described as the
prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tuba!
peoples clearly
Russian
by descent.
Russlans-Great and White
The Hebrew word
Rosh
is translated
"chier· in Ezekiel 38:2-3 in the King
May 1980
James Version. In Hebrew, the word
for chief is
Rosh.
But in Ezekiel's
prophecy the original Hebrew in–
tends Rosh as a proper name.
Rosh is the ancient Hebrew name
for the Russ who settled in the plains
of Eastern Europe in the ninth cen–
tury,
A.o.
They gave their name to
the Russian nation . The people of
Rosh are among the
White Russians
of Byelorussia today.
Living next to the people of Rosh
are Meshech and Tubal. Both Me–
shech and Tubal are sons of Japheth
(Genesis 10:2) and thus brothers of
Magog. To Herodotus and other
classical geographers and historians
they were known as the
Moskhi
or
Moschi
and the
Tibareni,
occupying
the region of the Caucasus between
the Black and Caspian Seas. In As–
syrian inscriptions they are the
Mus–
ka
and
Tub/a.
Josephus calls them
the
Moschevi
and
Thobelites.
The descendants of Meshech
(Moskhi) ultimately traveled into the
lands north of the Black Sea, settling
around
Moscow.
They gave their
name to that city, as well as to the
Moskva
River and the state of
Mus–
covy.
Part of Tubal also moved north,
giving their name to the river
Tobo/
and founding the Siberian city of
Tobolsk.
(Mongoloid branches of
Tubal are found in Tibet, Nepal,
Bhutan, Sikkim, the Indian state of
Nagaland, Sinkiang or Chinese Tur–
kestan, and parts of northern China
and Manchuria, according to Arabic
sources.)
Together, the Caucasian branches
of Meshech and Tuba! form the two
distinctive branches of the Great
Russians of today. The Great Rus–
sians are the largest ethnic group of
the Soviet Union.
Future Russo / Chlna Alllance?
Ultimately allied with the Russians
under Gog will be "many people"
(38:6, 9, 15). These could hardly
exclude the militarily weaker Chi–
nese and their Asiatic kinsmen–
those eastern Magogites who "dwell
securely in the coastlands" of the
Pacific (39:6,
Amplified Bible) .
The People's Republic of China–
the "many people" of Ezekiel 38-is
thus pictured as being linked with
Gog in the last days. We can there–
fore conclude that , one way or anoth–
er, the breach that currently sepa–
rates the Soviet Union and China
will eventually
be
bridged. Despite
the prospect of an emerging Chinese–
United States all iance against the
Kremlin, Peking and Moscow will
yet come to terms in spite of racial
and. political tensions!
Linked with the Russians and the
other nations of the Orient in the vast
endtime Asian confederacy will
be
Persia, Cush, Phut, Gomer and
Togarmah (Ezekiel 38:5-6). Who are
these peoples today?
History and scripture identify
them as the very peoples of the South
Asian region. Let us look at each one
individually.
e
Eafahan
IRAN
Let us begin with Persia (Ezekiel
38:5), the most easily identified. Per–
sia is simply another name for mod–
ern-day lran.
The name
Persia
originated from a
geographical region within southern
Iran. This region was anciently known
as Persis, theGreek formofOId Persian
Parsa.
Historically, the people of lran
have never used the name
Persia
for
their tountry. They have always called
it lran, "Land oftheAryans."
(Aryanis
used to designate speakers of Indo–
Iranian languages, as distinct from
Semitic-speaking Arabs, for example.)
The name
/ran,
however, did not come
into widespread use in the West until
the 1930s.
Iran today has a mixed population
of sorne 36 million. The majority
Jranians comprise nearly 70 percent
of the count ry. Iranians, though
Islamic, are totally distinct from the
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