@article{Kochanek_2021, title={Gog – eschatologiczny i realny wróg z Północy w literaturze patrystycznej i średniowiecznej}, volume={79}, url={https://czasopisma.kul.pl/index.php/vp/article/view/12243}, DOI={10.31743/vp.12243}, abstractNote={<p>The purpose of this article is to understand three concepts: Gog (Ezekiel 38-39), Magog (Genesis 10: 2), and Gog and Magog (Rev. 20: 7-10). It is about both their eschatological and historical aspects, as well as their etymology. By analyzing the writings of many Christian authors, it can be concluded that Gog in the Book of Ezekiel was usually presented as an eschatological enemy from the North. In turn, Magog, the son of Japheth in the Book of Genesis, was considered the progenitor of the Scythians. Whereas Gog and Magog from the Apocalypse of St. John is a synonym for Satan - the eschatological enemy of Christ’s followers. Practically only Ambrose of Milan identified Gog from the Book of Ezekiel with specific people, namely the Goths, referring to the contemporary geopolitical situation of the empire after the Battle of Adrianople. However, few Latin and Greek authors have adopted this interpretation. Most of the church writers followed the authority of Jerome and Augustine, critics of the historical interpretation of Ezekiel’s text. In turn, the identification of Magog in the Book of Genesis with the Scythians, known at least from the time of Josephus, met with almost universal acceptance. The difference between Greek and Latin authors here is that the Greek writers repeated this identification faithfully and thus passed on to posterity an archaizing image of the North. Consequently, they called Scythians not only Goths or Huns, but also Avars, Pechenegs, Hungarians and Mongols. Some Latin writers have tried to update this image. In general, however, all peoples coming from the North-East Eurasia bore the stigma of the biblical enemy from the North, because it was the Bible that was for the then church authors not only theological authority, but also an authority in the field of geography and ethnography.</p>}, journal={Vox Patrum}, author={Kochanek, Piotr}, year={2021}, month={Sep.}, pages={145–174} }