the protection of Ahura Mazda, Anahita (a goddess of water and of fertility) and Mithra (a god of light), and attributed his reconstruction of the Hall of Columns at Susa to the grace of these three deities.

A number of authorities have linked Anahita with the Babylonian Ishtar. Observes E. O. James in his book The Cult of the Mother-Goddess (1959), pages 94 and 95: “She was worshipped as ‘the Great Goddess whose name is Lady’, the ‘all-powerful immaculate one’, purifying ‘the seed of males and the womb and the milk of females’. . . . She was, in fact, the Iranian counterpart of the Syrian Anat, the Babylonian Inanna-Ishtar, the Hittite goddess of Comana, and the Greek Aphrodite.”

According to the Greek historian Herodotus (I, 131), the Persians also worshiped the natural elements and heavenly bodies. He writes: “The Persians, according to my own knowledge, observe the following customs. It is not their practice to erect statues, or temples, or altars, but they charge those with folly who do so; because, as I conjecture, they do not think the gods have human forms, as the Greeks do. They are accustomed to ascend the highest parts of the mountains, and offer sacrifice to Jupiter, and they call the whole circle of the heavens by the name of Jupiter. They sacrifice to the sun and moon, to the earth, fire, water, and the winds. To these alone they have sacrificed from the earliest times; but they have since learned from the Arabians and Assyrians to sacrifice to Venus Urania, whom the Assyrians call Venus Mylitta, the Arabians, Alitta, and the Persians, Mitra.”

The Zend-Avesta, the sacred Zoroastrian writings, actually contain prayers to fire, water, planets and to the light of the sun, of the moon and of the stars. Fire is even referred to as the son of Ahura Mazda.

GRECIAN DEITIES

An examination of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece reveals the traces of Babylonish influence. Observed Oxford University Professor George Rawlinson: “The striking resemblance of the Chaldæan system to that of the Classical Mythology seems worthy of particular attention. This resemblance is too general, and too close in some respects, to allow of the supposition that mere accident has produced the coincidence. In the Pantheons of Greece and Rome, and in that of Chaldæa the same general grouping is to be recognized; the same genealogical succession is not unfrequently to be traced; and in some cases even the familiar names and titles of classical divinities admit of the most curious illustration and explanation from Chaldæan sources. We can scarcely doubt but that, in some way or other, there was a communication of beliefs—a passage in very early times, from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the lands washed by the Mediterranean, of mythological notions and ideas.”—Seven Great Monarchies, Vol. I, pp. 71 and 72.

A distortion of God’s statement concerning the seed of promise may be noted in the mythological accounts that tell of the god Apollo’s killing the serpent Pytho, and of the infant Hercules’ (the son of Zeus and an earthly woman, Alcmene) strangling two serpents. The familiar theme of a god who dies and then is restored to life again confronts us. Annually the violent death of Adonis and his return to life were commemorated, with principally the women bewailing his death and carrying images of his body as in funeral procession and later tossing them into the sea or springs. Another deity whose violent death and restoration to life were celebrated by the Greeks was Dionysius or Bacchus, who, like Adonis, has been identified with the Babylonian Tammuz.

The mythological accounts make the Grecian gods and goddesses appear much like men and women. Although thought to be of much greater size and exceeding men in beauty and strength, the bodies of the gods were depicted like human bodies. Since their veins supposedly flowed with “ichor,” rather than blood, the bodies of the deities were considered to be incorruptible. Nevertheless, it was believed that men, by means of their weapons, could actually inflict painful wounds upon the gods. However, it was said that the wounds always healed and that the gods remained youthful.

For the most part, the deities of the Greeks are depicted as being very immoral and as having human weaknesses. They quarreled among themselves, fought against one another and even conspired against one another, Zeus, the supreme god of the Greeks, is said to have dethroned his own father Cronus. Earlier Cronus himself had deposed and even castrated his father Uranus. Both Uranus and Cronus are depicted as cruel fathers. The offspring borne to him by his wife Gaea, Uranus immediately concealed in the earth, not even permitting them to see the light. Cronus, on the other hand, swallowed the children borne to him by Rhea. Among the detestable practices attributed to certain deities are adultery, fornication, incest, rape, lying, thievery, drunkenness and murder. Those who incurred the disfavor of a god or goddess are depicted as being punished in a most cruel manner. For example, the satyr Marsyas, who challenged the god Apollo to a musical contest, was attached by the latter to a tree trunk and skinned alive. The goddess Artemis is said to have changed the hunter Actaeon into a stag and then caused his own hounds to devour him, this because he had seen her nakedness.

Of course, some claimed that these mythological accounts were merely the imaginations of the poets. But on this, Augustine of the fourth century C.E. wrote (The City of God, Book II, chap. IX): “For whereas it is said in their defence, that these tales of their gods were not true, but merely poetical inventions, and false fictions, why this doth make it more abominable, if you respect the purity of your religion: and if you observe the malice of the devil, what more cunning or more deceitful craftiness can there be? For when an honest and worthy ruler of a country is slandered, is not the slander so much more wicked and unpardonable, as this party’s life that is slandered is clearer and sounder from touch of any such matter?” However, the popularity of the poetical accounts as enacted on the Greek stage indicates that the majority did not regard them as slander, but were in harmony with them. The immorality of the gods served to justify man’s wrongdoing, and this found favor with the people.

ROMAN DEITIES

The religion of the Romans was greatly influenced by the Etruscans, a people generally thought to have come from Asia Minor. The practices of divination and augury definitely link the religion of the Etruscans to that of the Babylonians. For example, the models of clay livers used for divination found in Mesopotamia resemble the bronze model of a liver found at Piacenza in the Province of Emelia, Italy. So when the Romans adopted the Etruscan deities they were, in effect, receiving a Babylonish heritage. (See ASTROLOGERS.) The great Roman triad of Jupiter (the supreme god, a god of the sky and light), Juno (the consort of Jupiter regarded as presiding over matters of particular concern to women) and Minerva (a goddess presiding over all handicrafts) corresponds to the Etruscan Tinia, Uni and Menrva.

In the course of time the prominent Greek gods found their way into the Roman pantheon, although they were known by different names. Also, deities of still other lands were adopted by the Romans, including the Persian Mithras (whose birthday was celebrated on December 25), and the Phrygian fertility goddess Cybele and the Egyptian Isis, both of whom have been identified with the Babylonian Ishtar. Then, too, the Roman emperors themselves were deified.

Saturn was worshiped for bringing a golden age to Rome. The Saturnalia, originally a one-day festival in his honor, was later expanded into a seven-day celebration in the latter half of December. The event was marked by great revelry. Gifts, such as waxen fruits and candles, were exchanged, and clay dolls were especially given to the children. During the festival no punishment was meted out. Schools and courts had a holiday; even war operations were brought to a halt. Slaves exchanged places with their masters and were permitted, without needing to fear punishment, to give free reign to the tongue.

GODS OF THE NATIONS CONTRASTED WITH JEHOVAH

Today many of the gods mentioned in the Bible are little more than a name. Although their worshipers at times even sacrificed their own children to them, the false gods were unable to rescue those who looked to them for aid in their time of greatest need. (2 Ki. 17:31) Hence, in the face of his military successes, the king of Assyria, through his spokesman Rabshakeh, boasted: “Have the gods of the nations at all delivered each one his own land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are there among all the gods of the lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, so that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?” (2 Ki. 18:28, 31-35) But Jehovah did not fail his people as had those no-gods whom the king of Assyria consigned to the fire. In one night the angel of Jehovah killed 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. Humiliated, the proud Assyrian monarch Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, later to be murdered by two of his sons in the temple of his god Nisroch. (2 Ki. 19:17-19, 35-37) Truly, “all the gods of the peoples are valueless gods; but as for Jehovah, he has made the very heavens.”—Ps. 96:5.

Not only do the false gods have the characteristics of their makers, but people also become much like the gods whom they worship. To illustrate: King Manasseh of Judah was devoted to false gods, even to the point of making his son pass through the fire. But Manasseh’s zealous pursuit of false worship did not make him a better king. Rather, he proved to be like the bloodthirsty deities he worshiped, shedding innocent blood in very great quantity. (2 Ki. 21:1-6, 16) In sharp contrast with this, worshipers of the true God endeavor to be imitators of their perfect Maker, displaying the fruitage of his spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness and self-control.—Eph. 5:1; Gal. 5:22, 23.

GOD THE GOD OF ISRAEL

[Heb. ʼEl ʼElo·hehʹ Yis·ra·ʼelʹ, God is the God of Israel].

After Jacob’s encounter at Peniel with the angel of Jehovah, as a result of which he was given the name “Israel,” and after a peaceable meeting with his brother Esau, Jacob dwelt at Succoth and then Shechem. Here he acquired a tract of land from the sons of Hamor and pitched his tent upon it. (Gen. 32:24-30; 33:1-4, 17-19) “After that he set up there an altar and called it God the God of Israel.” (Gen. 33:20) This was Jacob’s first altar in Palestine. In identifying himself by his newly given name “Israel” with the name of the altar, Jacob indicated his acceptance and appreciation of that name and of God’s guiding him safely back into the Promised Land. The expression occurs only once in the Scriptures.

GOG

The meaning of this name is uncertain. Some lexicographers believe it conveys the idea of “high” or “gigantic.” The German Bibel-Lexikon (1953) suggests a derivation from the Sumerian word gug, meaning “darkness.”

1. A descendant of Reuben.—1 Chron. 5:3, 4.

2. The name is found in chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel and is there applied to the leader of a stormlike, multinational assault against God’s people. The attack comes after Jehovah has gathered his people out of the nations and restored them to the previously devastated “mountains of Israel.” Because they dwell in security, with no visible signs of protection, and because they enjoy abundant prosperity, Gog is drawn into waging a vicious, all-out attack upon them. He congregates a vast army from many nations for this purpose. But his assault sets off Jehovah’s rage and brings terrible defeat and destruction upon Gog and his entire crowd. Their carcasses become food for birds and beasts and their bones are buried in the valley that thereafter is called the “Valley of Gog’s Crowd” (literally, “Valley of Hamon-Gog”).

THE ASSAULT’S SOURCE AND INTENT

The assault has a source far distant from the land of Israel. Gog is “of the land of Magog,” situated in “the remotest parts of the north.” (Ezek. 38:2, 15) He is the “head chieftain [“great prince,” AT; “chief prince,” AV, RS] of Meshech and Tubal.” (38:2, 3) Some translations here read “the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” (AS, JB), thus making “Rosh [Heb. for “head”]” refer to a country or people. No such land or people is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, however. Meshech and Tubal, like Magog, are names given to sons of Japheth (Gen. 10:2), and the three lands bearing these names lay to the N of Israel. (See MAGOG; MESHECH No. 1; TUBAL.) Other northern members of the attacking forces, also Japhetic, were: Gomer and Togarmah (thought to be the progenitors of the ancient Cimmerians and Armenians, respectively). Japhetic Persia lay to the NE. But the conspiracy embraced southern Hamitic members also: Ethiopia and Put down in Africa.—Ezek. 38:4-6, 15.

Gog’s role, therefore, is as commander of a massive assault force that applies tremendous pressures designed to crush as in a vise Jehovah’s people, who are described as “dwelling in the center of the earth.” (Ezek. 38:12) Ancient Israel not only was located at a central point as regards the Eurasian and African continents, but also was the center of pure worship of the true God and was counted by him as the “pupil of his eye.”—Deut. 32:9, 10; Zech. 2:8.

Jehovah states that he will ‘put hooks in Gog’s jaws’ and lead him to this attack. (Ezek. 38:4; compare 2 Kings 19:20, 21, 28.) The prophecy clearly shows, however, that this is already Gog’s desire, the scheme being a product of his own heart. (Vss. 10, 11) Jehovah draws Gog out, nonetheless, by restoring and prospering his own name people. This incites Gog to manifest his malevolence toward God’s people and he willingly advances into a course that brings swift destruction upon him and all his associates. By the defeat and annihilation of Gog and his forces, Jehovah magnifies and sanctifies his own name before all observers.—38:12-23; 39:5-13, 21, 22; compare Joel 3:9-17.

IDENTIFICATION OF GOG

The lands and peoples mentioned in the prophecy relating to Gog are known from the Bible and to some extent from secular history. But efforts to identify Gog with some historically known earthly ruler have not been successful. Most frequently suggested is Gyges, king of Lydia in western Asia Minor, called Gugu in the records of Assyrian monarch Ashurbanipal. Gyges, however, had already died decades before the writing of Ezekiel’s prophecy in the latter part of the seventh century B.C.E. Hence, such identification is unacceptable. Additionally, the prophecy itself places Gog’s attack in the “final part of the years,” “in the final part of the days.” (Ezek. 38:8, 16; compare Isaiah 2:2; Jeremiah 30:24; 2 Timothy 3:1.) For these reasons the name Gog is evidently cryptic or symbolic, not being that of any known human king or leader.

The evidence points to a fulfillment in what is elsewhere called “the time of the end.” (Dan. 11:35; 12:9; compare Revelation 12:12.) Bible scholars and commentators generally recognize the prophecy as