Magog (Part 2/2)

Who will become the progenitor of the future apocalyptic nation?

Returning to the only real clue we have for Magog identity, the name Magog itself should be etymologically examined under an Indo-European lens. The Sanskrit word ‘mah’ or ‘malha’ means ‘great’, but alternatively the term ‘maha’ in Sanskrit also means ‘land’ and both terms share a common Indo-European root that means roughly the same thing. Similarly the Akkadian term “mat” means land and within the Akkadian Empire the term “mat Gugi” was used to refer to the land of Gyges - Gyges being the founder of the Lydian kingdom.¹

There is also the Persian word for mountain ‘kof’ derived itself from the Old Persian ‘kaufa’ similar to a possible root ‘ghogh’ found in Ossetic where it also means mountain. These are all likely terms either derived from the original term for the Caucasus Mountains, or themselves taken from a very ancient name for the region. The earliest term for the region comes from the Hittite “Kaz-kaz” which was a designation for the inhabitants of the southern coast of the Black Sea lining up geographically with this area.² The modern term stems from the Greek version “Kaukasos” where it eventually morphed into Latin, finding its way to English. Many of the Middle Eastern terms for the mountains stem from the Persian form.

Note that while both Sanskrit, Persian, Greek and Ossetic fall under Indo-European - Scythian itself was likely related to Ossetic as they are both Eastern Iranian languages³ - Akkadian is actually a Semitic language similar to Hebrew. While traditionally one wouldn’t presume Hebrew would transpose “Indo-European terms” it is quite clear that Semitic speakers were using a fairly similar term for “land” to the Indo-Europeans, and there is no reason to suggest they wouldn’t have also relayed the Indo-European term for ‘mountain’. It is interesting then that the Torah even uses the term “mountains of Israel” as the location for where Magog will invade, perhaps attempting to connect these ideas.

One final theory actually related to the “chief prince of meshech and tubal” line from Ezekiel where in Hebrew the words are “Nasi Rosh Meshesh V’Tubal” נְשִׂ֕יא רֹ֖אשׁ מֶ֥שֶׁךְ וְתֻבָֽל. We can ignore the “V” as it’s just the Hebrew word “and”, while Meshesh and Tubal are clearly the sons and later nations of Japheth. The term “Nasi” means Prince, and is often used in Judaism as a title similar to King, and a leader of nations, or armies. The strange term here is “rosh” which many Jews are familiar with meaning “head”, but its usage alongside prince feels like an extraneous double mirroring of nearly the same political terms if translated as “prince head”. Since we know the Torah is never extraneous or superfluous we must presume that the term Rosh might mean something different, and in this case be a reference to a third nation that Gog will lead.

The most obvious connection for Rosh would be to the “Rus” people known today as Slavs from Russia and the wider Slavic ethnic world. However, since the term Rus in relation to Slavs was a later post 9th century appellation it is unlikely the Slavs are specifically the nation of “Rosh”, but might have descended from some component of Rosh where they took their name. Indeed the term Rus itself was not actually Slavic, but likely a Norse endonym for the people from the region of Uppsala, Sweden which came to be applied to the wider “Eastern Norse” speakers heavily colonized in the 9th century by Norse speaking Vikings from Sweden. The Norse term itself originates from the Proto-Norse (and thus Indo-European descended) ‘roðz’ pronounced something close to ‘rothz’ making it strikingly similar to Rosh.⁴

While at first it might seem strange that Norse Proto-Vikings are being mentioned in a biblical reference when they are so far away from the Mediterranean, our previous point regarding Mycenaean and Norse trading contacts remains ever relevant. While groups like the Celts, or even Germans might feel strange to exclude from a modern lens, the reality is that the Norse were well known throughout the Bronze Age and it’s possible that in later centuries the paths taken by Viking and Gothic raidings around the mediterranean follows many of these old trade routes.

Plausibly the term Rosh is not in reference to Vikings, but rather a Scythian sub-tribe called the Roxolani well attested to through a variety of ancient sources. Strabo described these Roxolani as “wagon-dwellers” - another way to say nomadic - and according to him they were the “most remote of the Scythian peoples”.⁵ This would fit with their location along the Volga and Dnieper rivers, fairly close to the “non-Scythian” (but still related Indo-European) Norse and Germanic groups. Many believe the Roxolani are an offshoot of the Alans themselves, but all the divisions of Sarmatians would be difficult to parse. The final mention of Roxolani, funnily enough, is after their conquest of the Huns in the mid 4th century showing how they, like all Sarmatians, fuse into the records as other ethnic groups. It’s very possible the Roxolani and Rus trace their origins to a similar root term. The location of the Roxolani is circled near modern Romania on the following map.

Jassic, a Hungarian regional variety of Ossetian, is spoken by the Jasz people who came to Hungary during the 13th century Mongol invasions as some section of the Turkic Cumans. Strangely, the term “Jasz” or “Iasi” - the later form known from the Romanian city, and cultural capital, Iasi - is related to a Sarmatian people called the Iazyges who similarly settled in this region but during the 1st century BCE and were closely related to the previous Roxolani. Based on their cultural and ethnic traditions, these Iazyges were certainly an Iranic tribe - like all Sarmatians such as the Roxolani, Alans, or Aorsi - providing further evidence that Sarmatians in this region fused into later national identities such as Slavic, Hungarian, or Germanic. The location of this group is circled around the location of modern Hungary on the following map.

Both the Iazyges and Roxolani were at some point assimilated by their surrounding cultures, but the Alans are an entirely different story. Examining the other main Sarmatian group, we find Alans are the only certified population that still has modern descendants in the form of Ossetians.⁶ Their religion, Assianism - possibly origin for the Greek term “Asia” - still preserves many elements of the Scythian religion, but fuses it with modern developments in theology.

The term “As” or “Os” is the traditional self designation for the Alan subgroup of Sarmatians, who used the broader term “Ariitai” - essentially the same as the word “Aryan” - when referring to their unified Sarmatian coalition. While “Ossetian” or “As” is the term used natively by Ossetians to refer to all “Alanic” subgroups, the actual groups of Alan are divided into Irons in the East and South, Digor in the West, Iasi of Hungary, and Asud of Mongolia. The term “Iron” clearly still retains the original form “Alan” rather than being related to metal.

Many traditionally associate the Roman Empire's fall with a series of Germanic barbarian invasions, but this doesn’t exactly paint the full picture. Those waves of migration often contained large Sarmatian/Alanian elements in addition to a variety of other Scythian and Indo-European groups leading to the broad diffusion of European R Haplogroup DNA across a larger portion of Europe than the kingdoms these people may have founded.

During their time allied to the Goths, many elements of the Alans pushed as far west as Italy, France, and Spain where Rome would be forced to negotiate mercenary treaties or land settlements with the invaders. Today we have records for these Alanian migration in many of the toponyms found in modern France, places such as Alainville, Alaincourt, or Alençon. Even the French name “Alain” likely comes from these people. Within linguistics there is a debate if the Alans are also the origin for the broader name “Allen”, also used by various Celtic cultures such as the Scots or Irish.

While most readers would not make the association, it was these Alans specifically that provided the foundation for the Medieval chivalry culture that developed around these Scytho-Sarmatian equestrian traditions. The European concept of a “knight” itself came out of these “mercenary horse riders” of the Roman Empire, who often became landed nobility as a method to control their migrations into the empire. While few recognize the role of the Alans in later Western European culture, or see continuity between the ‘steppe nomadic horse riders’ and Western Europe, it is undeniable their contribution had an outsized impact showing their prominent role during classical periods.⁷

One group that merged into the Alanian federation were the Massagetae, who joined various other tribes to form the Alans after their decline in the 3rd century BCE. Unclear how the Massagetae related to their neighbors the Sogdians, or Bactrians, these groups often cooperated in war engagements against foreigners, most notably when Alexander the Great himself faced a rebellion of these groups.⁸ Another notable event involving these Massagetae was when Tomyris, female Queen of the Massagetae, defeated and killed Cyrus the Great King of Persia. The ‘female warrior’ culture similar to the sub-tribe Amazons begins to become more clear. The combination of these peoples' slaying of Cyrus and rebellion against Alexander - the two most important rulers of the classical world - would in their own be enough to associate a people with the “end of the world”.

Earlier we actually mentioned this group briefly among the Saka recorded in Achaemenid Persian tablets. The Saka are almost always “Subgroups of Scythians” who travel and migrate alongside the major Scythian groups, but often form their own nations as we have seen with Gomer and the Circassian Saka.

Importantly, these Saka had three categories: those “beyond the sea”, “who wear pointed caps” and “who lay Hauma”. The Hauma layers are clearly those Indo-Aryan groups that form much of the cultural ethnogenesis for India. The Saka who lived “beyond the sea” would be located by the two large seas - Pontic and Mediterranean - that separate the Achaemenid Persian world from Europe, where these Saka beyond the sea presumably were located. The Saka with pointed caps brings up the “Phrygian cap” as well as depictions of the Massagetae from historical artwork. 

There is even a fourth potential designation found in the Suez Inscriptions of Darius the Great where we get the Egyptian term Sꜣg pḥ Sk tꜣ which translates to “Saka of the Marshes/Land” referring to the vast mashy landscape previously formed by the Oxus river, but now dried up significantly. This fourth geographic location also perfectly lines up with our supposed Scythian related groups.

‘One of the Saka ‘tigraxauda’ -  the “Saka who wear pointed caps” - leaders was King Shunxa whose name is likely related to the Ossetian term meaning “distinguishing oneself”, and known to use from multiple dialects of Ossetian. This provides a strong clue that the Saka tigraxauda, who are the Massagetae, are closely related to the Ossetians, and thus Alans, helping attest to these all being the same people from different periods.

The etymology of the name Massagetae is a combination of the common tribal name “Getae” and the Avestan (Indo-Iranian) prefix “massa” meaning “great” or “strong”; a clear reference to this tribe as a major leader of coalitions as seen from their battles against Persia and Greece. The Massagetae seemed to have at some point picked up the cultural practices of the Aryan cultures.

Lining up with this is the fact that reportedly the Massagetae worshiped only the sun god, to whom they sacrificed horses, something we know from our old friend Herodotus.⁹ Presumably Herodotus was referring to the cult of the Iranian sun god Mithra, who forms an important part of the Zoroastrian religion.¹⁰ This may provide clues that a section of proto-Scythians were part of the ethnogenesis of the Andronovo culture, that goes on to develop the Zoroastrian religion these Massagetae seemed to have adopted upon their migration toward the east.

A final clue for this group is in the suffix “getae” found in many other Scythian groups broadly, even though they speak vastly different languages from the Massagetae. Among these groups are the Getae proper who were probably Thracians, or “Thraco-Getae” and were closely related to their Dacian neighbors often referred to as “Daco-Getae”.

Beside these two groups, a third prominent group of “Getae” were the Geats of Scandinavia. Distinct from the later Swedes but quite similar, the Geats were arguably the most prominent Norse tribe with a strikingly etymological resemblance to the Germanic “Goth”. It’s very probable that alongside the Thraco-Getae and Daco-Getae, these ‘Norse-Geats’, or Scando-Getae, were the three Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal mentioned alongside Magog in Ezekiel's prophecy. This shows that not only was Ezekiel predicting a large cross national coalition, but he himself had an extreme mastery of the geopolitics in Scythia begging the question if God himself didn’t help Ezekiel author his words.

Weirdly, another group of Getae were known as the Thyssagetae occupying a district “north east of Scythia” that was separated by a desert according to Herodotus. This would place these Thyssagetae at the southern end of the Ural mountains, north of the Caspian sea.¹¹ Obviously we continually return to this supposed “foothills of the Urals” as a location for Scythian related tribes, and it’s probable these Thyssagetae are related to those Ural Sarmatians due to them speaking an Iranian - rather than Celtic - language.

Interestingly another Sarmatian tribe situated along the river Tyras - modern day Dniester in Moldova/Ukraine - were the Tyragetae which would round out the rest of Japheths’s probable children, with the obvious exception of Javan, on linguistics alone. However, as we have seen with Magog and Sarmatians/Massagetae/Alans the actual picture of a group tends to be much more complicated than simple linguistics.

While the Alans and their modern descendants the Ossetians were certainly an important component of the Sarmatians, the broader Sarmatian coalition stretched far wider than Iazyges, Roxolani, or the Alans known in European records. Sarmatian and Scythian elements made their way all the way to India where we can find the modern Yaghnobi who speak a language closely related to Ossetic, separated by thousands of miles.

Interestingly, these Yaghnobi claim descent not just from a general Scythian group, but specifically considered the direct descendants of the Sogdians, with Yaghnobi often regarded as “Neo-Sogdian”.¹² Strikingly, Yaghnobi frequently have blonde hair and blue eyes, with incredibly European facial features, and often have high levels of R1 haplogroup DNA attesting to them as Scythians. A Yaghnobi child from Afghanistan is depicted in the picture to the right, and it is quite clear that he is not just a “mixture” of some Scythian population, but the direct descendants of some Scythian, likely Sogdian, group.

Readers will remember these Sogdians from our analysis of Togarmah where they were discussed as a population potentially related to Tokharians (but noticeably separate) and also related to the Xiongnu Proto-Huns - who weirdly enough end up in Hungary, with Sarmatians groups possibly providing a link between Sarmatians and Sogdians as close brother kin. The relationship between these two groups certifies Sogdians - who were known as ‘Saka’ during their migration period - are essentially the same as Sarmatians - who might also have been called Saka throughout the near east.

Both Yaghnobi and Ossetic represent the “Northern” branch of “Eastern Iranian” languages, but are far from the only modern descendants of a supposed Scythian language with major languages such as Pashtun or Pamir still extant. Pashtun today is known as the official language of Afghanistan, and the second largest language in Pakistan spoken by 15% of the population with a total of nearly 60 million speakers world wide.¹³ Pashtun is variously linked with Bactrian, Khwarezmian and Sogdian, with many of these speakers eventually merging into the Pashtuns and contributing to their European facial features.¹⁴ Due to the location of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in Afghanistan, it’s highly likely these are the descendants of that Bactrian nation. The Taliban consisting largely of Pashtun nationalists may, or may not - given a reader's particular inclination - be a strong logical reason to suspect these people as descendants of Magog.

While this branch of Iranian is called “Eastern” this term is extremely poor and should rather be something like “Scytho-Iranian” languages which shared origins with “Persian-Iranian” (or Western Iranian) descending from a common Proto-Iranian ancestor. The major split between these two groups is the obvious “Persian” vs “Scythian” elements which formed vastly different geopolitical empires, even if they were brothers. On the attached map the Persian languages are depicted as Yellow/Green, while the Red/Purple languages are the “Eastern” Scythians.

All of these languages presumably descended from a more ancient pre-Iron Age population somewhere in the Scytho-Siberian steppe prior to the migration of the Turkic groups that pushed Scythians from the region. The hypothesized point of contact for these people would have been the Andronovo horizon, which roughly correlates to the center most territory of the Scythian Empire east of the Caspian Sea along the fertile plains.

We extensively discussed this Andronovo culture earlier in our “Homeland of Japheth” section, but to quickly reiterate Andronovo was the culture that split from the original Yamnaya “Japheth” homeland slightly to the east forming the basis for all the Indo-Iranian groups. Note the separation of the “European” groups which, despite having similar genetics, end up with separate cultures and languages. On the map to the east are the associated sub-cultures of the Andronovo and possible Indo-Aryan migrations into India. While these specific Aryans are not the group described as Magog, their movement into India provides the basis for the later Sogdian, Bactrian, and even Turkic migration into the Indian subcontinent mirroring effects we have seen for other groups migrating into “familially related” territory, not merely random lands.

Returning to our Scytho-Iranian Sarmatians who came from Srubnaya rather than Andronovo, we can see how many elements of these groups might have spread and assimilated into lands they settled. The easternmost groups of the Sarmatians become known as Sogdians, as certified from their modern descendents Yaghnobi, while western groups of Sarmatians go on to become many of the Eastern European populations such as Slavs, or Hungarian/Romanian groups. While most of their identities disappear from the historical record, their traditions - such as the West European Chivalry equestrian culture - spread to groups beyond their own strict descendants in the east.

Considering the Sarmatians and Vikings are a phenomenon long come-and-gone, the fact the Torah is so masterfully able to allude to Scythians, Sarmatians, Vikings, Turks, Mongols and even the Taliban, viewed all as later apocalyptic nations by the people heavily devastated from their invasions, is nothing short of miraculous. Whether it was Ezekiel’s prophetic wisdom, or Hashem’s direct intervention the term Magog has extremely broad and far-reaching appeal, implying we have yet to truly see the final evolution of this term's application.

I would wrap up this analysis of Magog by separating out the “future Magog” of Ezekiel’s prophecies from their ancestors' population who descended from the original “Magog” figure, eponymous founder of a so-called “land of Magog” from which the later Magogites will come forth. The list of descendants of Magog is long, and possibly infinite as a result of modern population movements, but there is a singular link between all of the peoples, and nations mentioned thus far: Sarmatians.

One possible reason Magog was chosen as the apocalyptic nation is specifically due his position as the only “nomadic” Japheth on the list. While populations and nations move, and shift constantly, there is a difference between specifically nomadic and sedentary agriculturalists such as Greeks, who settle far and wide during periods of colonization, but still do not practice “nomadic” lifestyles. The same can be said for previously populations identified on the Table of Nations such as Celts, Germans, or Anatolians. These were populations that had settled somewhere, and migrated to other areas, but were not explicitly nomadic people. While we have yet to identify the later nations descended from Japheth, we will see that only Magog is still nomadic into the Iron Age giving rise to his selection as leader during the end of times.

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Hopefully this week’s post has left you with a fairly clear picture of Magog, who is normally masked in layers of propaganda. Rather than letting ourselves get bogged down we looked at the evidence and traced known facts instead of supposed stories. All of those facts not only line up with the Torah, but provide an incredible look at the multi-polar ancient world. The Torah is clearly attempting to teach us these things, otherwise the prophecies of Ezekiel wouldn’t so heavily reference these nations. While it may have once been clear who these people were, centuries of propaganda has prevented a proper identification.

Thank you for reading, and as usual feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below. Don’t forget to like and share this with anyone you think might enjoy the subject.

1. Daniel Block (2013), Beyond the River Chebar: Studies in Kingship and Eschatology in the Book of Ezekiel, p. 107.

2. Gocheleishvili, Iago. "Caucasus, pre-900/1500". Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE.

3. Lubotsky, Alexander (2010). Van Sanskriet tot Spijkerschrift Breinbrekers uit alle talen. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. p. 34.

4. Larsson, Mats G. (1997). Rusernas rike in Vikingar i österled. Atlantis, Stockholm. ISBN 91-7486-411-4. pp. 14–15.

5. Strabo's Geographika, Book II, page 441

6. Foltz, Richard (2022). The Ossetes: Modern-Day Scythians of the Caucasus. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 50–52.

7. Foltz, Richard (2019). "Scythian Neo-Paganism in the Caucasus: The Ossetian Uatsdin as a 'Nature Religion'". Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. 13 (3): 314–332.

8. Schmitt, R. (2018a). "Scythian Language". Encyclopædia Iranica. New York City, United States: Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation; Brill Publishers.

9. Therefore we don’t actually know if this is true.

10. Abetekov, A. [in Kyrgyz]; Yusupov, H. (1994). "Ancient Iranian Nomads in Western Central Asia". In Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Harmatta, János; Puri, Baij Nath; Etemadi, G. F.; Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (eds.). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Paris, France: UNESCO. pp. 24–34.

11. Minns, Ellis Hovell (1911). "Thyssagetae". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 26.

12. Bielmeier. R. Yaghnobi in Encyclopedia Iranica

13. Penzl, Herbert; Ismail Sloan (2009). A Grammar of Pashto a Descriptive Study of the Dialect of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Ishi Press International. p. 210.

14. Hotak, Muhammad; Habibi, Abd al-Hayy (1997). The Hidden Treasure: A Biography of Pas̲htoon Poets. p. 21.