TITLU în română: Cine este Regele lui Meşec şi Tubal? Frigieni şi Mezi în Oracolul despre Gog al lui Ezechiel
Subiect: This article proposes that Ezekiel’s association of Gog with the geographical areas Meshech and Tubal was derived in part from the involvement of the historical Medes and their king Cyaxares in the part of Anatolia assumed under these biblical terms. These terms correspond to lexical cognates in Assyrio-Babylonian literature and cover specific parts of central Anatolia including the Kızılırmak bend. This Anatolian space was most importantly inhabited by a Phrygian polity known from the site of Kerkenes Dağı. This polity had emerged after the decline of Midas the Great’s Gordion-based Phrygian kingdom. The Median confederation was active in Anatolia and presumably had ties to the geographical areas designated by Meshech and Tubal during the 7th and 6th centuries BC. The Median connection explains the chronological and geographical scope assumed in Ezekiel’s Gog of Magog. Next to the Babylonians, the Medes under Cyaxares and Astyages established the largest land empire during the time of the Judean exile. It became an eschatological symbol for world nations against YHWH in the Gog oracle of Ezekiel 38–39.
