Revelation 20:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By the nations called Gog and Magog we should not understand certain barbarians inhabiting some part of the earth, such as the Getae and Massagetae, as some think because of the similarity of letters in their names.

Nor should we understand other foreign nations not under Roman rule. For they are shown as living throughout the whole earth when it says: "He will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth," and then adds, "Gog and Magog."

The meaning of these names in translation is this: Gog means roof, and Magog means from under the roof. It is as though there were a house, and one who comes out of the house.

These, then, are the nations in whom, as we showed above, the devil is shut up as in an abyss. He himself, as it were, comes forth and goes out from them. They are the roof, and he is from under the roof.

But if we refer both names to the nations, and not one to them and the other to the devil, then they will be both roof and from under the roof.

They are the roof because the ancient enemy is now shut up in them and is, in a certain way, covered by them. They are from under the roof when they pass from hidden hatred to manifest hatred.

On the basis of the Lord's words to the Sadducees concerning the righteous, that "they are like the angels of God in heaven" (Mt 22:30), and the apostle's words that "the Kingdom of God is not food and drink" (Rom 14:17), we understand the thousand years as the time of the preaching of the Gospel.

As we said earlier, there is no need to take this thousand years as an exact number. In the Song of Songs it is said: "A man will bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard is before me: the thousand are for Solomon, and two hundred for those who keep its fruit" (Song 8:11-12).

There the number is not indicated, but the abundance and surplus of the harvest. So here it denotes the perfect fruit of faith.

After this the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition, will come (2 Thess 2:3). Then, according to the apostle, all who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness will receive judgment (2 Thess 2:12).

This also accords with the Lord's word: "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive" (Jn 5:43).

Then Satan, released from his prison, as it is said, will deceive all nations and will raise Gog and Magog to battle, for the devastation of the world.

Some suppose that Gog and Magog are northern, distant Scythian peoples, whom we call Huns, the most numerous and warlike of all earthly nations.

Only the divine right hand restrains them from seizing the world until the devil is released.

Others say that Gog, translated from Hebrew, means gathering or the one who gathers, and Magog means exaltation or the one exalted. By these names, they say, the gathering of the nations or their arrogance is signified.

We know that Ezekiel prophesied of these nations, saying: in the last days they will come with great power and fall upon the land of Israel, and because of their multitude their weapons will burn for seven years (Ezek 39:9).

Some interpreters referred these words to the battle of the Assyrians with Sennacherib under Hezekiah. But that event occurred long before Ezekiel's prophecy.

Others refer them to the defeat of the nations that attacked Jerusalem when the Jews wished to renew and strengthen the walls of that city after the Babylonian captivity, by command of Cyrus the Persian and then of Darius.

Or they refer it to the armies of Antiochus, defeated by the Maccabees.

But it is known that the coming of these nations most properly corresponds to the last times. In the sacred books there is nowhere mention of wars of the Jews with the Scythians.

There is mention only of wars with neighboring nations, who envied their sudden enrichment. Also, it is said of Gog that he is prepared from ancient times and will come in the last times.

Finally, in this Revelation, which foretells the future, it is said that Gog and Magog will appear at the end of the world.

Everyone whom he exalted and led into sin by his own pride, or raised to the roof of arrogance, or who was recognized as having descended from that roof and height of his exaltation, will all receive one condemnation and eternal fire at the same time.

When he says, "to gather them for battle," he describes the future in place of the past. For battle, in a certain sense, means that sinners resist good works.

And because sinners are many, indeed very many, he adds: "Their number is as the sand of the sea."

Yet someone may say: "Why will the devil, who was once constrained and whose passionate impulses were hindered at the bodily coming of the Lord, again be permitted to deceive us who are on earth? Would it not have been better for him to be bound and for men to remain free from error?"

To this one should answer: why not rather ask the reason for the devil's coming into being? Or why, after coming into being and turning to the path of transgression, was he not utterly destroyed, so that he would have no access to men?

And how, my dear friend, would wrestlers be trained if there were no one with whom to contend? How would they display their strength if there were no opponent? For negligent men who are easily given to amusements are wretched in themselves, whether the devil is present to disturb them or not.

But the people of God, the pure-hearted athletes, would be wronged if their courage in enduring the passions were not made visible. Thus the absence of Satan would not benefit the lazy, and the zealous would receive the greatest reproach.

For Satan, in a certain way, is an instructor in men's training, offering those who contend an occasion for triumph in victory.

Yet you wished, for my sake and yours, that the servants of sin should receive freedom and fall away still more, so that we might suffer not even the slightest, or almost no, influence of the devil.

Then the patriarchs and prophets would be deprived of glory, as would the apostles and evangelists. So too would those who steadfastly remained witnesses of Christ even to the shedding of their blood and preserved nobility for His sake.

The confessors would also be deprived, and the remarkable pastors who guide the churches, and the most patient ascetics, and all the righteous who reached maturity in the faith of Christ, "of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb 11:38).

Thus the noble fighters, pure in character, mitigate the punishment of sinners, who are harmed in the fullest measure. For one honest man is valued by God more highly than a thousand who reject Him.

Therefore in both cases it was done excellently and by divine inspiration. The spiritual assault of the devil was hindered during the Lord's coming, and he was loosed after the Lord's ascent into heaven to tempt men.

If Satan had been permitted to display himself in full activity while the Lord was on earth, he would have hindered men from reaching the height of divine teaching. No one would have been able to learn Who is truly and by nature God, what His pure service is, and what evil and good are.

He would also have prepared the Cross for Him before the proper time, before the teaching had begun. If this had happened, the Lord's becoming man and its wondrous mystery would have had no effect, or rather would have been useless.

Divine Ezekiel also spoke of this Gog and Magog, saying that the destructive will perish destructively (see Ezek 38:8). They are certain nations that will lead nations in the last times, for they do not now exist. Or they are some of the nations now existing, called by other names in the divine Scripture.

They will be gathered by the God-opposing Satan against the servants of Christ.

False teachers will appear, deceiving men. Finally, the antichrist will appear, and he too will deceive the nations by false signs and supposed miracles.

The word Gog, translated from Hebrew, means the one who gathers, or gathering. The word Magog means the one exalted. On this basis, interpreters think these names signify either the gathering of the people or their exaltation.

Some interpreters, relying on the fact that in the prophet Ezekiel the appearance of Gog and Magog is referred to the last times of the world, understand by them the antichrist and his numerous army.

This army will preach apostasy from faith in Christ as God.

"And they went up on the breadth of the earth." This indicates a universal apostasy from the true faith.

By the camp of the saints Saint Andrew understands the Church of Christ, established at the four ends of the world. By the beloved city he understands Jerusalem, from which Christ's teaching spread through the whole world.

Probably at that time, when many temples of Christ will be profaned, the antichrist will also sit in the temple of God, presenting himself as God, as the Apostle Paul says of this (cf. 2 Thess 2:4).

By the fire that will devour the ungodly one may understand actual fire fallen from heaven, as happened, for example, in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Or perhaps here fire means the power and swiftness of God's punishment, to which all persecutors of Christ's Church are condemned.

The seer clearly uses the name of these ancient barbarians metaphorically, to denote those savage hordes that will arm themselves against Christ's Church before the end of the world, intending to destroy it completely.

The antichrist will probably be the leader of these hordes.