Hypothesis: Ezekiel’s Gog is the Gordian Dynasty of the Phrygian Empire
Ezekiel’s Gog Magog prophecy makes the most sense when read in its most superficial form. In that analysis, we find that Ezekiel is writing about a geopolitical affiliation of various dynasties descended from Biblical figures, of which Gog’s dynasty is chief, which was both extant in Ezekiel’s time, and, according to his prophecy, would still be intact, or at least revived, in the latter days, by which time it would hail from the extreme north.
A few of the dynasties mentioned in Ezekiel’s Gog Magog prophecy are known with a high degree of certainty to have existed in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) at that time. These include Meshech, Tubal, Magog, and Gomer. Therefore, it’s nearly certain that Ezekiel’s “Gog Alliance,” as it were, was geographically centered in Asia Minor in his own time. Therefore, we should be able to easily identify it by way of analysis of pagan history in Asia Minor around the 7th century before Christ. That is, we must only ask the question, What empire controlled Asia Minor around the 7th century BC?
Indeed, we find that in Ezekiel’s own era, Asia Minor was in fact culturally and geopolitically defined by the recently defeated Phrygian empire, formerly ruled by the dynastic kings of Gordion. We also see that pagan history confirms that the Phrygian empire, at its height, did in fact control the territories thought by Biblical scholars to have been inhabited by the descendants of the Biblical patriarchs mentioned in the prophecy, such as Meshech, Tubal, etc.
The Phrygian empire and its Gordian dynasty reached their zenith just prior to the time of Ezekiel, and even after the official fall of the Phrygian empire, it persisted as the dominant cultural and geopolitical force in the region for hundreds of years afterwards, all the way until the height of the Greek empire under Alexander the Great.
Logically then, the pagan identity of Ezekiel’s Gog Alliance must be Phrygia, and Gog must be the Gordian dynasty, a line of kings named Gordius (e.g. Gordius I, Gordius II, etc.). The name Gordius comes to us by way of the Greeks, perhaps further separated from its Phrygian source by one or more other intermediary tongues, and the “ius” suffix is of Greek convention. Therefore, it is logical to speculate that the original Phrygian name for the 8th century progenitor of the Gordian dynasty would not have the Greek suffix, rendering “Gord.” It’s also noteworthy that history tells us that the first King Gordius was not of Phrygian origin, but was in fact a foreigner to the region, who was proclaimed king of Phrygia by an oracle who supernaturally discerned he was of noble lineage (a story we later see elements of in Alexander’s conquest of the region). Ergo, even his Phrygian name, which has been lost, would have likely been itself an adaptation of his actual birthname in his own language. Therefore, while this is speculation, it’s not unreasonable to hypothesize that Gordius may in fact be one in the same name or title as Gog. Even the name Gog, however, may have merely been the Hebrew adaptation of the original source.
Ezekiel further corroborates the identify of Gog as the Gordian dynasty by way of the title he bestows upon Gog as “Gog of the land of Magog.” The ancient city state of Gordion, capital of the Phrygian empire, ruled by the Gordian dynasty, does in fact find itself situated EXACTLY smack dab in the middle of what many scholars have identified as the land inhabited by the descendants of Magog, son of Japheth. We could therefore speculate that perhaps the Phrygian people themselves are ethnically Magogites, with the Gordian dynastic rulers being descended from Gog, grandson of the prophet Joel. And you will remember from the last paragraph that it’s a matter of historical record that King Gordius, founder of the Gordian dynasty, was NOT of Phrygian origin, but was a foreigner to that land. So it seems nearly certain that the Phrygian people who preexisted him in the region prior to Gordius’s empire were in fact the ethnic descendants of Magog, son of Japheth, making the title “Gog of the land of Magog” perfectly logical.
Furthermore, we find a similar scenario with respect to Rosh. While European Biblical scholars translated Ezekiel’s Rosh as an adjective, it is treated as a proper name in the Septuagint, which is not only much closer to the original sources, but was translated by Rabbinic scholars who were native speakers of both Greek and Hebrew. It is therefore only reasonable to first assume that Ezekiel’s Rosh is one in the same as the son of Benjamin. Or, more specifically, that Ezekiel was referring to a dynasty within the Phrygian realm that traced its origins back to the Biblical Rosh, son of Benjamin. Perhaps not coincidentally, there are numerous kings of Urartu, an eastern kingdom in Asia Minor at the time of the Phrygians, with the name Rusa. In fact, King Rusa II of Urartu was the primary conspirator in an alliance to overthrow the Gordian dynasty, leading to the Cimmerian invasion of Phrygia just prior to the era of Ezekiel.
At this point, one might be tempted to declare Turkey, the current occupant of Asia Minor, as Gog, and many have, but not so fast! Before we go jumping to conclusions, it’s important to note that the modern state of Turkey has no ethnolinguistic connections to the kingdoms or peoples of Ezekiel’s Asia Minor. Don’t forget that Ezekiel isn’t giving us a geography lesson in verse 38; he’s referring specifically to royal dynasties and their kingdoms, and in fact he himself, a few verses later, tells us that said dynasties will find themselves in the “utter parts of the north” by the latter days. In other words, Ezekiel indicates that we will not find these people living in Asia Minor in the latter days, but rather that they would have migrated to the far north (presumably with respect to Asia Minor, indicating the region north of the Caucasus). Indeed, there is no historical argument that the people of modern day Turkey are the same people of Asia Minor in Ezekiel’s day. Not only do ancient sources indicate those peoples migrated out of Asia Minor during the Greek period, the modern state of Turkey and its people are relatively recent additions, having come to the region during the Ottoman invasion of the Byzantine Empire. Turkey is in fact the modern day Ottoman Empire, and is separated from Ezekiel’s Asia Minor by a thousand years, and is separated from ancient Phrygia by both the Greek and Roman empires, which dominated Asia Minor after the time of Ezekiel.
It’s also necessary to point out now that ethnolinguistic groups migrate rapidly throughout history, even in antiquity, and it’s not only NOT at all unusual for peoples to be displaced overnight, it’s the NORM. It is in fact a historical rarity that one finds ethnolinguistic groups of people occupying a region for extended periods of time. This phenomenon is even more pronounced with respect to dynasties, which is more to the point of what we’re dealing with, most specifically, in terms of the names listed in Ezekiel 38. It’s also important to note that the genealogies of dynastic rulers rarely align with the people, much less all or even the majority of the people, who reside in their kingdoms under their rule. For example, it’s a historical fact that Phrygia was diverse, and that its dynastic rulers were complete foreigners to the region. So even if there were strong links between modern day Turkey and the peoples of Ezekiel’s Asian Minor, which there are not, that would still not establish a link between Turkey and the dynasties of Ezekiel (i.e. the genealogies of the kings descended from those Biblical patriarchs, namely Gog).
So is there historical evidence that the peoples of ancient Phrygia migrated northwards out of Asian Minor? Yes! By the time of Alexander the Great, a mere 200 years after Ezekiel, Greek historians tell us that the peoples of Gog and Magog, formerly of the Phrygian empire, were at that time living north of the Caucasus in the Cimmerian empire. Yes, you heard that right, Greek historians tell us that Gog and Magog were living in the very same empire whose mercenaries had conquered them in Rusa II’s conspiracy to overthrow Phrygia.
This shouldn’t come as any surprise. In ancient times, it was very common for conquering empires to absorb the royal dynasties of conquered foes into their own dynastic bloodlines. This ensured peace and cooperation between the newly conquered kingdoms and their new overlords. So it should come as no surprise that by the time of the Greeks, about 200 years after the time of Ezekiel, we find the dynasties of Gog and Magog living among the Cimmerians, the very empire that conquered them, north of the Caucasus.
More fascinating still, we find an AD 6th century king named Gordas in the last remnant of the Cimmerian empire, the Cimmerian Bosporus, in what is today the Ukrainian Russian borderlands around the Sea of Azov, on the far western side of the ancient Cimmerian empire. This would prompt one to speculate that King Gordas may have been the last known king of the Gordian dynasty going all the way back to ancient Phrygia. In other words, this AD 6th century king may be the last known patriarch of the latter days ruler who will lead the Gog Alliance in its invasion of Israel (calling all genealogists to explore possible links between Vladimir Putin and the kings of the 6th century Cimmerian Bosporus).
The kings of the Cimmerian Bosporus were then absorbed into the Eastern Roman empire, which became the Byzantine empire (later driven out violently by the Ottoman Turks, whose modern day identity is the nation of Turkey). We would therefore fully expect that the royal dynasties of the Eastern Roman empire and those of the Cimmerians would intermarry, and it is a matter of historical fact that the czars of the Russian empire believed themselves to be the rightful heirs to the Roman throne, and thought of Russia as the rightful Roman empire (a state of affairs that defines the geopolitical development of Europe in the post Roman period, with nearly every European king and kingdom claiming such titles and pedigrees). Indeed, the word “czar” is merely the Russian word for Caesar.
The Remarkable Case of Gomer
Ezekiel mentions another ethnolinguistic group of people (Gomer and all his bands) who were occupants of Asia Minor at the time of the Phrygian empire. If we’re going out on the assumption that Ezekiel is prophesying that Gog will get the band back together, it makes sense that Gomer would be part of that. But where is Gomer now?
The Marvels of Bible Prophecy
If this hypothesis is correct, this speaks to the utter wonder that is the accuracy of Bible prophecy. The Gog dynasty had, according to this hypothesis, been defeated, displaced, and brought under the subjugation of a barbaric, uncivilized people (the Cimmerians). The era in which Ezekiel lived was the twilight of the Phrygian empire, its legendary dynastic rulers defeated, its peoples scattered, and its preeminence now a thing of mythological proportions.
This being the case, it was bold, to say the least, for Ezekiel to prophesy that not only would the Gog dynasty persist, but that thousands of years later it would somehow reestablish its former empire and reorganize it, this time in the far reaches of the wilderness north of the Caucasus, in what is today Russia. If you draw a line straight north of the ancient Phrygian capital, it takes you straight to Russia, with the next stop being the Arctic Circle. Not just Russia, mind you, but the most populated part of Russia, the very heart of the Russian empire, with its capital cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow. This part of the world was essentially uninhabited in Ezekiel’s day, and it is indeed the farthest habitable land that exists directly north of ancient Phrygia, perfectly matching the description of being in the “uttermost parts of the north.” The area around the Russian capitals is indeed the “uttermost” north, at least as far as habitable land goes, that can support a large number of people.
And while other prophecies’ fulfillment are received with accusations of self-fulfillment, most notably with respect to the modern day regathering of the nation of Israel, there is simply no argument whatsoever to be made in that direction with respect to the Russian empire being the modern day regathering of the ancient dynasties of the Phrygian empire of Ezekiel’s day. Largely because it’s a state of affairs that, if true, was lost to memory thousands of years ago, precluding even the remote possibility of intentional influence on anyone’s part. In other words, you can’t intentionally bring about the fulfillment of a prophecy, the meaning of which has been lost to history for thousands of years. I believe it’s safe to say that no one during the history of the Russian Empire was shaping events in an attempt to fulfill Ezekiel’s end times geopolitical vision.
A Current Geopolitical Bombshell
If it’s true that Russia is the modern day reorganization of the Phrygian empire under its dynastic ruler Gog, and that the European Union, or at least most of it, will join in on the invasion as Gomer, the recent withdrawal of Britain from the EU can only be prophetic in nature, as Britain is most surely Tarshish, which Ezekiel prophesies will not only refrain from participating in the invasion, but will protest the invasion as unjustified.
There has always been a vigorous debate among Theologians whether Britain or Spain is ancient Tarshish, but I submit the debate has finally been conclusively decided. Thanks to a technology called isotropic analysis, we now know definitively that ancient Britain was a significant source of the tin that fueled the bronze age Levant, which corroborates the Biblical narrative that Tarshish was the source of bronze age tin to the Levant. Britain is almost surely then the “tin islands” referred to by ancient sources. This makes Britain the only candidate that meets all the Biblical criteria for the identification of Tarshish.
It’s also noteworthy that Britain’s indigenous peoples are distinct from the peoples of Europe. While the Celtic, Saxon, Roman, and Norman invasions, as well as the Viking raids, brought a lot of European ancestry to the islands, and resulted in the British peoples speaking Germanic, the ethnolinguistic identity of the indigenous British people (i.e. the ethnic identity of the “Merchants of Tarshish”) is distinctly different from that of the Europeans, who are Japhetic descendants by way of Gomer. This goes as well for the various offshoots of the British empire, such as America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
It is therefore of extremely high significance that Britain in these latter days would break away from the European Union and become at odds with the European nations.
Also of note, Britain is and has been modern Israel’s greatest champion. Not only were Jews embraced by the British empire, Britain and its offshoots, namely the United States, have been God’s instrument in the reformation of Israel and its protection throughout the 20th century. And we can’t fail to acknowledge that the Anglo-American establishment was the 20th century champion of Israel that defeated Germany, Israel’s greatest enemy, saving them from complete annihilation.
Putin’s Spirituality and Modern Russia’s Anti-Semitism
To be clear, I can’t find anything linking Putin genealogically to the Gordian dynasty, or any noble bloodline for that matter, but his emergence as Russia’s supreme leader at this time is suspect. I also can’t help pointing out that there is a theme all throughout history of these dynastic bloodlines falling into ruin, to be lost to history, only to be rediscovered many centuries later. Apropos, the original king Gordius himself is reported to have been just such a case, so it would be only fitting that his latter day heir would likewise come from a humble background that conceals darkly noble origins.
Vladimir Putin is an extremely devout adherent to the Eastern Orthodox faith, which is to the Russian empire what the Roman Catholic church is to the Holy Roman Empire (aka Europe). Ergo, we have two competing Romes (just like Daniel prophesied), each with its own competing version of the pagan Roman religion, masquerading as Christian religions. But just like we can indict the pope of being anything other than a follower of Christ, so to can we similarly indict Putin, as his actions are those of someone who is openly adversarial to Jesus, to His father Yahweh, and, most importantly, to Yahweh’s people, the Jewish people of modern Israel.
One does not have to go out on a limb to expose the Russian Federation, with Putin at its helm, as the world’s largest supporter of antisemitism by way of Russia’s support for its proxies, that are sworn enemies of Israel, openly plotting its destruction and the complete genocide of the Jewish people. Just as the Anglo-American establishment has been Israel’s greatest champion, Russia has been the champion of Israel’s enemies.
All of Israel’s enemies in the 21st century are fully backed by the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin, by way of Iran. Every terrorist attack, every missile barrage, and every political attack on Israel in global governance stems from Russia’s influence in the region. Even the October 7th massacre itself goes all the way back to the Kremlin, with the attackers having been armed and trained by Russia’s proxies, and even by Russia itself directly, which uses the Wagner Group to train Hamas terrorists while maintaining credible deniability of official state involvement. In the numerous videos taken by Hamas on October 7th, the Arabic-speaking attackers can be heard shouting orders in Russian, undoubtedly a result of their having been trained by Wagner mercenaries.
Russia’s crimes against the Jewish people go back to the early days of the empire, though. Russian history is nearly defined by its treatment of the Jewish people, the majority of whom settled in what became the Russian empire after their expulsion from Israel by the Romans. Throughout the history of the Russian empire, the Jews who had been living there since the first century AD were systematically marginalized, ostracized, and then eventually outright victimized by the Russian czars and the Russian people. At the beginning of the Russian empire, the Jews had equal status, but by the time of the modern era had been systematically reduced to peasants and banned to the rural backwaters of the Russian empire in what is today the Ukraine, where they became the victims of increasingly violent pogroms, culminating with the Ukrainian SS murdering several million Eastern European Jews in WWII.
So if Putin is not a Christian, what then is he? What faith does he really follow, that masquerades as a Christian faith, while spiritually nurturing the man who has more Jewish blood on his hands than any other living person on earth?
Association of Gog with Giants
There is pagan association of Gog with giants all throughout antiquity, all the way from Asia Minor to the British Isles. The tribes of Gog and Magog during the time of Alexander, said by the Greeks to include giants, inhabited the region north of the Caucasus mountains.
The Islamic historians associate Gog and Magog with giant tribes.
There was a legendary giant of the British Isles, said to have inhabited ancient Britain near London, named Gogmagog (which appears to be a portmanteaux of Gog and Magog).