A Reader’s opinion: Your view on Gog and Magog is similar to James
Jordan's old view that it was about the Maccabees. Jordan changed his mind and
believes it refers to Esther. Personally, I disagree with both approaches. I
see Gog and Magog (and the other prophecies of an eschatological battle) as referring
to the war of the Church to convert the nations throughout her history. Gog is
the eschatological wicked king mentioned in Numbers 24, and it is stated there
that the messiah's kingdom is higher than Gog. For complex reasons I don't have
space to go into now, I think Gog is Satan.
Damien Mackey’s
Response: This
interpretation, Gog being Satan, reminds me a bit of the suggestion of some
regarding the nephilim giants of Genesis 6:4, that they were fallen
angels.
As I noted in:
following the view of Fr. John Echert, an
interpretation such as this can run into what Fr. Echert here calls, “metaphysical
complications”:
Answer
by Fr. John Echert on 1/22/2006:
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Genesis
records a strange hybrid which resulted from sexual unions between the
"daughters of men" and the “sons of God.
6:1
When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born
to them, 6:2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and
they took to wife such of them as they chose. 6:3 Then the LORD said,
"My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his
days shall be a hundred and twenty years." 6:4 The Nephilim were on the
earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the
daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men
that were of old, the men of renown.
While
many scholars prefer to dismiss this entirely as myth which is borrowed from
pagans cultures of the ancient near east, it is more appropriate to look for
some truth and reality behind this mythical sounding text. Some of the Church
Fathers, such as St. Augustine, Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria suggested
that the “sons of God” may refer to righteous descendants (men) of Seth who
took descendants (women) of Cain as wives. In such a case, “sons of God”
associates the men with the goodness of God whereas “daughters of men” would
be intended as a contrast to this. This is typical of ancient Semitic
expressions which must not be interpreted literally as we understand such
constructions but in accord with the customary use of language at the time.
Knowing the background of Cain as a killer and the bad blood of his
descendants, it is no wonder that such unions would be regarded in a negative
light, which unions led to a situation in which humanity was corrupted and
unacceptable to God. On the other hand, it is said of Seth and his line that
these were the first to reverence the Name of Yahweh. The word “Nephalim”
literally means “fallen ones” which sense would be consistent with an
interpretation that views this group as a corrupt mixture of good and bad
blood. Other commentators have suggested that the “sons of God” were (fallen)
angels who somehow mated with human women, but this does present metaphysical
complications in light of the natures of each. For now, I find the Patristic
solution the most satisfying. ©
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There is a serious need today for a return
to the studying of a sound Philosophy of Being, with its clear distinctions
between the various levels of being (whether created or uncreated).
I find it most difficult to regard the “Gog”
of Ezekiel 38 and 39 as being anything other than a human being, he being a
prince-ruler of provinces known to us from the Assyrian records:
and said to be leading an international army
comprising soldiers from known places at the time, such as Persia and Ethiopia
(Cush), these invading Israel, and there meeting catastrophic defeat.
The nephilim giants perished in the
Flood - demons, of course, don’t drown.
The Gerasene “Legion” may, perhaps have had
their ‘wings dampened’, but it was only the herd of swine that actually drowned
(Mark 5:12-13): “The demons begged Jesus, ‘Send us among the pigs; allow
us to go into them’. He gave them permission, and the
impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in
number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned”.
Likewise, one does not bury Satan (‘I
will give Gog a burial place in Israel’), nor his demon army. Neither will one find Ezekiel’s “human bone” remnants amongst
non-human demons (39:11-16):
‘On that day
I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel
east of the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his
hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog. For
seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I
display my glory will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign Lord. People will be continually employed in
cleansing the land. They will spread out across the land and, along with
others, they will bury any bodies that are lying on the ground. After the seven
months they will carry out a more detailed search. As
they go through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will leave a marker
beside it until the gravediggers bury it in the Valley of Hamon Gog, near a town called Hamonah. And so they will cleanse the land’.
James B. Jordan, who has written some interesting
articles, had thought to connect the phonetically alike names, “Hamon” and “Haman”
(the wicked conspirator in the Book of Esther). But he, as I noted in:
Gog and Magog. Part Three: Could Haman be Gog
had realised that a connection between the
two was problematic: “The main argument against my hypothesis would be that Ezekiel 38-39 picture
an invasion of the land of Israel, whereas the events of Esther happened
throughout the Persian Empire”.
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