The prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39 has been referred to often in this book because it is related to the interlude of the seven bowls, called Armageddon. There Ros, Meshech, and Tubal are called the chief participants in leading the nations. These names are often used by classical historians. The plan of this section therefore is to show the historical connection between the Russian people of today and those nations named in Ezekiel. Our study here will take us through some new territory for most readers but you will find it very valuable. The Origin of the Russian People
Chapter 19
We will study the Antes, Veneti, Sclaveni, the three major ethnic divisions of the Slavic race of whom the Russians are now the leading nation. The development of the Slavic or Sclavic* tribes is necessarily veiled in obscurity because of their geographical location and their historical relation to the rest of the world.
* There are many different spellings of the derivations of these words because of their passage through many languages of differing phonetic systems. Don't let the changes in spelling confuse you.
Most historians take the position that civilization was dispersed from the Mesopotamian Valley about B.C. 4000. Civilization moved from Mesopotamia to Egypt, Persia, the Indus Valley, and then gradually across the Mediterranean world. Classical historians view the world with the Mediterranean Sea as the geographical center. The limits of the civilized world were fairly well defined. As late as 1,000 B.C. the Fertile Crescent still contained the bulk of civilization. However, in the next millennium, civilization was to move across and occupy North Africa and then through Anotolia, the Peloponnesus and on past the Italian boot, on down the Iberian Peninsula to the Straits of Gibraltar. The Straits or Gates of Hercules and the Indus River formed the eastern and western limits of the classical world.The northern and southern limits of this world were fairly well set by natural boundaries. The desert to the south formed the North African buffer in the west, while in the east the Indian Ocean provided the southern limit of habitation. To the north the classical world was bounded by the Rhine and Danube Rivers, the Black Sea, the formidable Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea and the Mountains of Media. Within these boundaries was "inside" the civilized world.
Within these limits lived extremely sophisticated and intelligent races of people. Outside these boundaries--to the north--lived great hordes of people called by the general Greek name Scythians, or the descriptive name, barbarians. Among these tribes of nomadic, unlearned barbarians dwelling in obscurity were the tribes we seek to identify. The obscurity in this case is one of direction. The classical writers had developed a world worth writing volumes about. Outside, roamed people who were hardly worth mentioning. Consequently, much of the information about these ancient, nomadic tribes of Central Asia and the North Caucasus, and the Crimean Steppes is gleaned from incidental mention of them by people who feel that they are on the inside looking out.
Sources of Ancient History Which Mention Slavic-Russian Origins.
There is much more respect owed to ancient historians than is often given. If modern man were divested of all the achievements which went before, how long would it take to lay the foundations of civilization? When the problems of reaching such a civilized level as was reached by the ancients is understood, we must marvel. Map making, for instance, without tools in a world where the inhabitants did not know the limits of the earth would pose many problems. The accuracy of the ancients is a source of wonder. "Distance and direction became increasingly important as civilization expanded,"* hence the early rise of map making. Ptolemy, the astronomer of second-century Alexandria, mapped the world and placed on it the nations of the "oikomene," the inhabited civilized world. He also placed on his map the barbarian tribes which were known in his day.** Eratosthenes, an astronomer and geographer of the second century B.C. who calculated the circumference of the earth at 25,000 miles, considered the inhabitable area as a strip 1,500 miles wide.*** He thought that north of this strip it would be too cold to live and that south of it would be too hot. Eratosthenes and others at the Alexandrian library described the area and tribes north of the Black Sea.
* Brown, Lloyd A.; The Story of Maps; Little, Brown and Co.; Boston, 1949. pg. 32.
Florinsky describes the melting pot of the Steppes from the time of these previous historians onward:
** Ibid, pg. 92.
*** Ibid, pg. 44.
"When the Greeks colonized the area north of the Black Sea about 700 B.C. they found Scythians with whom they traded. These Scythians disappeared and Sarmatians took their place; they were followed by Goths, and then in turn the Huns, Avars, Khazars, Magyars, Sclavs, and then Turks and Tatars from the seemingly inexhaustible spawning ground of humanity in Eastern Asia."*Ancient historians, travelers, and kings recorded the movements of these nations beyond the borders of the civilized world and are therefore important sources for this study. Assyrian and Hittite inscriptions as old as 1,200 B.C. mention the parent tribes of the Russian or Muscovite peoples. The famous Behistun Rock, dating from the sixth century B.C. contains mention of Caucasian tribes including Meshech and Tubal. Fortunately, for us, the inscription was made in rock which has endured the ages.* Florinsky, Michael T.; Russia--A History and an Interpretation; MacMillan Co., New York, 1953, pg. 5.
Herodotus is a fifth century B.C. historian who, although betraying an understandable naivete, is a source of light concerning the same tribes. They will be mentioned later. He was a world traveler, and he gave a detailed description of Scythians in Central Asia and the Caucasus region.
Xenophon, about 300-400 B.C., described the barbaric tribes beyond the Tigris and Euphrates whom he and his men encountered on their long march to the north of Persia.*
* Xenophon; Anabasis; Book IV.
Strabo is a first century historian and geographer who goes to great length to describe all the tribes north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus in detail throughout six volumes.Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century A.D., makes mention of Scythian tribes and gives the meaning of the word "Scythian" as a generic term to include all tribes of barbarians in his day
. Tacitus, the Roman historian of the first and second centuries A.D., gave a detailed description of the Sclavic tribe of Veneti who lived in the region of present day Poland. He also described tribes who lived in what is now the Ukraine.
There are two sixth century historians who are of importance to us because they described the same Muscovite tribes mentioned by the earlier sources. Procopius lived in the reign of Justinian, Emperor of Byzantine Rome. It was he who gave the decree in 533 A.D. declaring Pope Leo to be the supreme bishop of all the Christian Churches. The Sclavs were making invasions into Byzantium at that time. Procopius mentions the tribes related to Russia by name. A contemporary, Jordanes, a Gothic barbarian converted to Roman Christianity, wrote a history of his own people and their interaction with the Sclaveni during the Gothic migration from Scandinavia to the Crimea, where they lived until they were pushed out by invading Huns.*
* Jordanes, translated by C.C. Mierow; Jordanes--The Gothic History; Princeton University Press, 1915.
These sources are antedated by Moses who wrote about 1400 B.C. He recorded in Genesis 10, what is called the Table of Nations.* Moses makes clear mention of the Japhetic tribes of Meshech and Tubal, long before they are described by classical historians. Ezekiel also wrote of these same tribes about 600 B.C. These, too, will be mentioned below.*See The Table of Nations in the Appendix of this book.
There are good reasons why these sources plus the findings of modern scholarship should be sufficient to trace the tribal origins of the Russian people. The foremost is that the area of Russia was not settled until very late and there is not a great deal of confusion archaeologically. Civilization did not come to the area until the sixth century A.D. Government began in Kiev in the eighth and ninth century. Inhabitants do not extend to the remote past since Paleolithic man (whatever that means since no date is assigned) is found only in South Russia, while only a few Neolithic sites have been found in North Russia,* and the "Moscow region Stone Age [Neolithic] period seems to be about... 1500-1200 B.C.,"** which is relatively late. Therefore, since the initial habitation of the area is within historical times, it should make the identity of the tribes immigrating there easier to trace. It should be no surprise then if we are led back to Mesopotamia to Meshech and Tubal and the sources from which civilization was dispersed about 4,000 to 2,000 B.C.* Pares, Bernard; A History of Russia; Alfred Knopf, New York, 1958, pg. 8.
In the first century B.C. Neolithic culture still abounded north of the civilized world. The section north of the Sea of Azov was described by Strabo as inhabited by poverty-bound nomads living on flesh and milk but in large numbers.* This is not to say that some tribes were not beginning to settle down, for from earliest times there was some degree of stability among those who were generically known as Scythians, but who more specifically carried many names including those in the Genesis 10 record.
** Vernadsky, George; Ancient Russia; Yale Univ. Press, New Haven; 1943. Vol. I, pg. 24.* Strabo; The Geography of Strabo; trans. Horace Jones, Pub. G. P. Putnam Co., New York; Loeb Classical Library; 1932, Vol. V. pg. 193.
Scythians, Cimmerians, and Sarmatians
The first inhabitants of South Russia are called Scythians in historical documents. The term "Scythian" is a generic term designating many different tribes and peoples. It is akin to the way that we now use "barbarian." Gibbon states that he uses the terms "Scythian" and "Tatar" interchangeably.* Strabo in describing Scythians, states,
"The Scythian or nomadic tribes... beginning at the Caspian Sea are called Dacae, but those who are situated more to the east than these are called Massagetae and Sacae, whereas all the rest are given the general name of Scythians, though each people is given a separate name of its own."**These Massagetae are the same as those described by Herodotus who were responsible for the death of Cyrus the Great. The Sacae are inscribed on the Behistun Rock carved by Darius I about 500 B.C. Although Strabo says there were numerous other tribes among the Scythians he does not call their name. However, he recorded that "the region of the Caucasus contained seventy tribes, the greater part being Sarmatian."* Since the term Scythian is generic, "the history of the Scythians refers more to the Russian country rather than people."** The general nature of the term "Scythian" can be seen where it is used for all the inhabitants north of the Danube and the Black Sea and all the way to Central Asia by 500 B.C.*** Herodotus gives a description of "Scythians in the army of Xerxes clad in trousers, tall and stiff caps rising to a point on their heads. For weapons they used the bow of their country, the dagger and the battle axe."**** Darius, whom Xerxes succeeded, had carved the information in Behistun Rock as to how he had recaptured a revolting empire. These inscriptions were a long time unread, but became the key to the cuneiform languages a hundred or so years ago when they were first deciphered by Sir Henry Rawlinson. In the inscription, Darius attributed his success to his god, Ahura Mazda, and he named as subject nations, besides Egypt and Babylon, also Armenia, and the Sacae or Scythia.***** Thus the "Scythians" as subject people, existed and were known to the historians of the period by 500 B.C. Caucasian Scythians were in the army of Xerxes, which indicates Persian suzerainty over these people by the fifth century B.C.* Gibbon Edward; The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire; Modern Library, New York, Vol. I pg. 792
** Strabo; op. cit. pg. 261.* Ibid.
When Scythian tribes invaded the "civilized world" in 632 B.C. Cyaxares, the Assyrian king, pushed them out and subjugated Armenia.* This event was not the first nor would it be the last time that barbarian invaders came through the Caucasus region to threaten the growing Assyrian Empire. In fact Wells says, the region of the Caucasus was inhabited by "a confusion of tribes about whom it is truer to be vague than precise, such as Cimmerians, the Sarmatians, and those Scythians who came into contact with the Assyrian Empire by 1,000 B.C."**
** Kluchevsky, V.O., trans. C.J. Hogarth; A History of Russia; Russell & Russell, New York, 1960, pg. 37.
*** Hammond, C.S.; Historical Atlas; Hammond & Co. Maplewood, N.J., 1963, pg. 4.
**** Herodotus; Book 7:69
***** Davis, Wm. Stearns; Readings in Ancient History: Greece and the East; Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1912, pg. 49.* Ploetz, Carl; Epitome of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History; 7th edition, Pub. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1883 pgs. 15-25
Scythians also invaded India and several dynasties ruled along the Ganges and the Indus before native princes overthrew them in 57 A.D.*
** Wells, H.G.; op. cit. pg. 239.* Ploetz, Carl; op. cit. pg. 24.
Thus, although Gibbon and others, among whom are Arabic writers, ascribes the term "Scythian" specifically (and perhaps more correctly) to Mongol Tatars of Central Asia, other ancients, like Ptolemy, make all barbarians Scythians.
"But because they have a richer share of moisture [those who live in the northern parallels] which is most nourishing, and is not exhausted by heat, they are white in complexion, straight-haired, tall and well nourished and somewhat cold by nature, these too are savage in their habits because their dwelling places are continually cold... We call these men too by a general name, Scythian."*Thus, it can be seen that Mongols, Tatars, Aryans, Cimmerians, Sarmatians, and Goths, and therefore, Ros, Meshech, and Tubal, are to be found among the Scythian tribes described by classical historians.* Ptolemy, trans. F.E. Robbins; Tetra Biblos; Harvard University Press, 1956, pg. 123.
Cimmer and Sarmatae
The fluid nature of settlement in the Russian Steppes in ancient times is described by Florinsky:
"South Russia was first politically organized by Cimmerians from 1,000 to 700 B.C., then by Scythians from 700 to 200 B.C., followed by Sarmatians from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D., followed by Goths, 200 to 370 A.D., then in turn by Huns, 370 to 454 A.D. It should not be concluded, however, that each people completely displaced the other. Native stock stayed, while each successive people came, controlled and moved on."*The Cimmerians were a nomadic people who moved about the Pontic Steppes, having originated in Mesopotamia, as we shall show, and arrived in Asia by way of the Iranian Plateau. Moses referred to them in Genesis 10 by the name of "Gomer," one of the Japhetic tribes. Vernadsky, who calls these tribes "Japhetides," says, "Cimmerians may be considered as Aryans as well."* Florinsky; op.cit. pg. 6.
Vernadsky, a secular historian, uses the Biblical term "Japhetide" interchangeably with Aryan, Indo-European, and Caucasian. He said, "The original stock of natives of South Russia [were] called Japhetides."*
* Vernadsky; op.cit. pg. 49.
"Gomer," which Moses referred to as a Mesopotamian tribe, is philologically related to tribes mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions. In order to understand the different spelling and pronunciation when words change their forms or are translated into other languages, we need to consider the construction of words in Semitic languages, like Hebrew. Hebrew words are almost all built on a three letter consonantal root with no written vowels. "Gomer" is derived from the three letters "GMR." The doubling of a letter within a word when syllables are added is frequent and done simply by adding a dot to the bosom of the consonant. Thus if you put a dot in the "M" it becomes "GMMR" or "Gommer." Actually any vowel combination is possible without changing the word itself, so this same tribe "was known as the Gimmerai to the Assyrians."* The Gimmerai came into contact with Assyria when they "overthrew Vannic power in South Armenia in 720 B.C. Sargon of Nineveh sent all of his resources to drive them back, diverting them to North Anotolia and the Bosporus."** The initial migrations of the Gimmerai to regions north of Persia and the Ukrainian Steppes has been mentioned above. They made a reentry into the "civilized world" about 1200 B.C. to the areas mentioned by Garstang which we explain below.* Delitzsch, Franz; Genesis; Clark, 1899; Vol. I. pgs. 297, 298. (Quotes Lukenbill's ancient records of Assyria and Babylon unearthed by Albright.)
The Greek Writers referring to the same people, substituted a less harsh guttural "K" in place of the "G" and their records call the same people "Kimmeroi."* The name "Gomer" changes to "Gommer," "Gimmer," "Kimmer," and in English translation is anglicized to "Cimmer." No wonder the confusion! The nationality endings are, in Hebrew and Assyrian, "i," in Greek, "oi," in English "ian," thus "Cimmerian."*
*** Homer; Odyssey; XI:14.
"Cimmerians [or Gimmerai as the Assyrians called them] came through the Caucasus in 709 B.C. to devastate Hittite civilization."* The Hittite civilization, which was uncovered again in the first part of the present century, was altogether lost and their name erased from history except for the pages of the Old Testament, which ties them to the Hamitic Canaanite tribes in the Table of Nations of Genesis 10:*** Garstang; op. cit. pg. 17. This date was later corrected by Garstang's nephew, O.R. Gurney, who in his book, The Hittites; Penguin, London, 1952, wrote that the confrontation of Cimmerians, combined with Meshech and Tubal against the Hittites was at an earlier date, nearer to 1200 B.C. This is enlarged in the text below.
Garstang and Gurney are the archaeologists who have restored this history, which has many Biblical coincidences, including the tracing of Meshech and Tubal at the time of the conflict which crushed Hittite civilization into the dust. See below.
** See Appendix, "Table of Nations."The Cimmerians, having risen first in Mesopotamia, moved across the Median Plateau of Iran into Central Asia where they lived many centuries in a nomadic lifestyle. Pares says that the Cimmerians and Scythians were related to the Persians and therefore were members of the Indo-European family.* They migrated back through the Caucasus from the twelfth century B.C. to the eighth, coming into contact with the Hittites, and then the Assyrians in 709 B.C. The Cimmerians lived for a long time, previous to their "reentry," in the Crimea, which was known in former times as the Cimmerian Bosporus. Thus Strabo writes: "The Cimmerians once possessed great power in the Bosporus and that is why it is called the Cimmerian Bosporus."** The name Crimea is derived from Cimmeria.
* Pares; op. cit. pg. 9.
The Cimmerians were driven out of the region by the Scythians, who in turn were driven out by the Greeks,* who colonized the area from the sixth century B.C. Sarmatians, a new tribe to the area, moved in and drove out the remaining Scythians contemporaneously with the early Caesars of Rome.** Groups related to Sarmatian and Cimmerian tribes other than those mentioned also occupied the same territories during the same periods. Herodotus describes these groups:
** Strabo; Book VII. 4:3* Ibid.
** Kluchevsky; op. cit. pg. 30."Callippidae on the north coast of the Black Sea, beyond [which] is a mixed race part Scythian and part Greek; beyond them is a people named Alazones. Both these follow the Scythian way of life. Beyond these are Scythians who till and sow, not for food, but for sale. Beyond them are the Neuri and to the northward of those the land is uninhabited as far as we know."*The mixed Scythian-Greek stock was mixed further by Alexander the Great, whose policy of deliberate colonization of the area by Jewish diaspora was undertaken and accomplished.* The Jews at that time became the predominant religion of the Taurus region. This may be an indication of why the Khazars of the eight century found it expedient to be Jewish, because there were large numbers of Jews in the area by Roman times.*** Herodotus; Book IV. 20.
* Dubnov, S.M.; History of the Jews in Russian and Poland; Jewish Pub. Soc., Philadelphia, 1916. pg. 16.
** Ibid.Slavic Origins
The problem of finding Slavic origins is compounded by difficulties which have already been discussed. Although the racial divisions of Slavs into three major groups also compounds the difficulty of finding a clear way to a solution, it does not make it impossible.
Three Divisions of Slavs
"The Venedi, the Sclaveni, and the Antes were three great tribes of the same people."* These tribes appeared by these names in the second century B.C. although they did not come into clear view until the second century A.D. They can be divided geographically: The West Slavs or Venedi were spread along the Vistula River and eastward. Ptolemy's second century map has the Venedae possessing Northwest Sarmatia, present Poland, by 176 A.D.** The Middle Slavs from the Carpathian Mountains eastward to the Dnieper were called the Sclaveni. The East Slavs were the nomadic Antes who inhabited the Pontic or Ukrainian Steppes. Because most of the Slavic tribes were nomadic, they were historically obscure and are not found in records (being called by the general term "Scythian) until they began "invading" the civilized world, although some have tried to place them in the Balkans, by name, 200 years before Christ.*** Drivnov placed the beginnings of the Slavic movement into the Balkans in the early second century.****
* Gibbon; op. cit., Vol. I, pg. 191.
The Slavs like the rest of these nomadic tribes have Mesopotamian origins. Some have proposed a far eastern origin but "the theory that the family to which the Slavs belong came from Asia is now generally abandoned."* Because of a lack of clear statements philology must be used and philologists agree with this conclusion. Triballians are a tribe associated with Slavs on Ptolemy's second century map.** They had lived along the Danube and rebelled in the fourth century B.C. after the death of Philip of Macedon. The description of Alexander's defeat of this uprising is recorded by Plutarch.***
** Vernadsky; op. cit., pg. 88.
*** Vasliliev, A.A.; History of the Byzantine Empire, 324-1453; Univer. of Wisc. Press, Madison; 1961. pg. 107
**** Ibid, pg. 110.* Pares; op. cit. pgs. 7, 9.
Arrian, another one of Alexander's classical biographers, records Alexander's praise for his father Philip who had subdued the Slavic Border Thracians who were now subject to him.* These early (and later, for that matter), descriptions of Slavic tribes are not complimentary.
** Brown; op. cit.
*** Plutarch; ed. E.C. Lindeman; Plutarch's Lives; New Amer. Libr., 1960. pg. 1950.* Arrian; Book VII. 9: 1-4.
Lifting the Veil of Obscurity
The obscurity due to the unmentioned names of Slavic tribes disappears after the time of Christ. Tacitus describes the Venedi in 98 A.D. He said, "Venedians speak Germanic languages though they live like Sarmatians, a wandering lifestyle, and are given to plunder."*
* Tacitus, trans. Arthur Murphy; Works of Cornelius Tacitus; H.W. Derby, New York, 1861. pg. 573.
Procopius and Jordanes, the two major historians of Slavic origins from the time of Christ to the sixth century have been described in the introduction to this chapter. Jordanes describes the Venedi as a populous race, "occupying a great expanse of land. Though their names are now dispersed among various clans and places, yet they are chiefly called Sclaveni and Antes."* It is interesting to notice the change in generic terms as they grew in size. In most ancient times the tribes were known generically as Scythians, then Venedi became the generic term from 100 A.D. to Jordanes in the sixth century. The Slavic name then became the generic term and still is, although the name Russian, today, covers many of the same tribes as a generic term. The large extent of area the Venedi covered is attested by their possessing from the Carpathian Mountains to the "Savages of Finland,"** by A.D. 250.* Jordanes; op. cit. pg. 59.
Gibbon said that, "it is now generally admitted that if the Sarmatians were not Slavonic there must have been many Slavonic settlers among them to account for the purely Slavonic names that occur."* This position of little consequence, attributed to the Sarmatian-Slavonic tribes until the fall of the Western Roman Empire, changed decidedly and they then range far and wide and resemble the migrations of the earlier barbarian migrations of the fourth century. Jordanes describes this state: "The Venedi, Antes, and Sclaveni, though they now [550 A.D.] rage in war far and wide, in consequence of our neglect, yet at that time [A.D. 351-356] they were all obedient to [the Gothic] Hermanaric's commands."**
** Gibbon; op. cit. Vol. I, Pg. 213.* Ibid.
Jordanes refers to Gothic control of Slavic tribes after the Goths left the environs of Scandinavia to move to the Pontic region where they settled and ruled for several hundred years, and then were forced by migrating Huns to invade the Roman Empire in the fourth century. Jordanes, wishing to preserve for posterity the history of his own people, the Goths, incidently mentioned their interaction with the Slavs. He described the Slavic homelands, in 550 A.D., as "extending from Noviodunum [in lower Macedonia] to the Dneister and northward to the Vistula."* This marks Slavic control of this region almost 300 years before the establishment of the Scandinavian Varangian state at Kiev. It also clearly marks Scandinavian influence long before Ruric, seen in the Ostro-Gothic names in pre-Ruric Slavic rulers, like Valimir, Vidimir, Thuidimir, and Vladimir, which is purely Gothic, not Slavic.
** Jordanes; op. cit. pg. 85.* Ibid. pg. 59
Slavonization of the Balkans
Early incursions into the Balkans have already been noted. Illyria was the home of Slavs (present Yugoslavia) before the time of Justinian. "Great Slavic eruptions into the Balkans [took place] in the reign of Justinian."* Slavs began moving with great power into the Balkans. They invaded Thrace, besieged Constantinople, settled in Illyria, and had things pretty much their own way even in the reign of Justinian, circa 533 A.D. "In the early sixth century they resembled barbarian invasions, entering Byzantium to plunder and settle or move about at will."** They kept this up through the seventh century. By the death of Justinian they had changed the racial structure of the Balkans. The consequent thinking has resulted in ethnological theorizing of a complete Slavonization of the Balkans in recent times.***
8 Vasiliev; op. cit. pg. 110.
"Illyria and all of Thrace from the Ionian Gulf to the suburbs of Constantinople, including Greece and the Chersonese, were overrun by the Huns, Slavs and Antes almost every year"* from the time when Justinian took over the Roman Empire.
** Ibid, pg. 112.
*** Diehl, Charles, trans. L.B. Ives; History of the Byzantine Empire; Princeton Univer. Press, 1935, pg. 47.* Procopius, trans. R. Atwater; Secret History; Univer. of Michigan Press, 1961, pg. 91.
Having overrun the Balkans and settling there, as had the Goths and Huns in the west, these tribes changed the racial make-up of the Balkans from Greco-Roman stock to Slavic. There are those who believe that present Greece is completely mixed Turko-Slavonic.The Slavs moved from the Carpathian Mountains north in the seventh century. They established themselves on the Dnieper River.* In the ninth century when the Kievan State was established, the movement of foreign policy toward Byzantium is greatly understandable in the light of the Slavic nature of Byzantium at that time. By the ninth century the Slavs had come into their own and were destined to develop into one of the great peoples of the earth. Of course they were plainly called Russians by the time of the founding of Kiev in the ninth century. Moscow was established in the same century as Kiev, almost the same decade, as was the capital of Siberia known as Tobolsk. Surely, Meshech and Tubal who resided in the Caucasus or Moschian Mountains, there known as Moschoi and Tabal, is present day Moscow and Tobolsk. Much more is to be said of this relationship below.
* Florinsky; op. cit. pg. 6.
The Racial Stock of the Scythio-Sarmato-Slav TribesWe have discussed the dispersion of civilization from Mesopotamia and the Mountains of Iran as the probable home of Indo-European tribes. The Aryan or Indo-European or Japhetic families of nations has yet another name which is indicative of the spawning grounds into which these tribes settled, grew, and then left. This region is the Caucasus Mountains, which gave the name Caucasian to families of nations springing forth from this region.
The Caucasians were originally tribes that moved up from the Mesopotamian Valley and brought with them the Japhetic name of their prehistory. "The ethnic composition of the tribes of North Caucasia was mixed. To the original Japhetide backgrounds [various backgrounds were added.]"* The "original Japhetide background" can only refer to the racial division recorded by Moses in Genesis 10. There is no other origin for the racial division called Japhetic. Modern authors, historians and ethnologists attest to the value of the Mosaic record in this use of Japhetic designations of Indo-European people besides those of Caucasia.
* Vernadsky; op. cit. pg. 201.
Speaking of Iran, Ploetz writes: "Within this broad plateau a widely accepted theory locates the primeval home of the Aryan, or Indo-European or Japhetic race from which in prehistoric times successive colonies wandered away to the south and east."* These wandering Japhetic tribes are among those who moved into central Asia from the Iranian Plateau. The Genesis record indicates that the Japhetic tribe of Madea, or the Medes, were in the Iranian Mountains. As we have already indicated, the Cimmerians are named in the Japhetic line in Genesis 10, as are also the Ionians.* Ploetz; op. cit. pg. 24.
One of the tribes of the Antes, or Alans, were the As, whom Vernadsky deals with extensively, showing them to be an important Slavic forerunner. The As were known also as Os and came originally from the Caucasus. "The Caucasian tribe of Ossetians or Os, alias As, are probably of mixed Alano-Japhetide origin."** Vernadsky; op. cit. pg. 90.
Slavic tribes are therefore Japhetic in origin as are their near neighbors who run under the general name of Scythian. When Vernadsky speaks of these tribes under generic terms of Scythian and Slav or Japhetide he includes Meshech and Tubal. "The original stock of the natives of South Russia...called Japhetides," is speaking of Cimmerian-Scythian stock as early as 1000 B.C.* Those who moved in later are of the same background racially. "Local Japhetide and Iranian tribes inhabited the Asov area in the fifth century B.C."** Still later, the nations and tribes, growing larger and more profuse, still find their origins in Japhetic backgrounds. In the eighth century, "the Khazars were a mixture of Turks, Huns and some native Japhetic tribes of North Caucasia."****Ibid, pg. 49.
The inhabitants of central Asia, South Russia, the Caucasus and the Iranian Plateau are identified as Japhetic. It has been pointed out that Mosaic literature in Genesis 10 assigns Japhetic tribes to the Mesopotamian Valley prior to 2500 B.C. There is every historical indication that this is the case, and that from this valley they were dispersed as was civilization. They were largely nomadic, however, moving out of Mesopotamia through the Caucasus and Iran to Central Asia and the Pontic Steppes.
** Ibid, pg. 57.
*** Ibid, pg. 213.
Irano-Mesopotamian Origin of the Racial and Cultural Heritage of Sarmato-Slavs
Proximity of central Asia to Iran alone would be enough to cause a proposal of relationship of tribes. The proximity of Mesopotamia and Iran is apparent. So also is the freedom of movement enjoyed by tribes moving in and out of Mesopotamia, to and from the Median Plateau. Medians were a subject people to the Assyrians at the time of Nineveh's greatness, about 1000 B.C. However, by the seventh century B.C., the Medes conquered and destroyed Nineveh. This opened the way for the Chaldeans, who took control of the old Assyrian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar with the capital in Lower Mesopotamia at Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar subjugated Median power while enlarging his empire. He added Egypt by 606 B.C., defeating Pharaoh Necho at the Battle of Carchemish on the Euphrates River.
Cyrus the Persian conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.. Previous to this the Medes had conquered the Persians south of them. Ironically, however, the Persians ended up controlling the Medes. These two peoples, now one, established the Medo-Persian Empire, which lasted until Alexander the Great swept the world. Darius the Great, successor to Cyrus, the inscriber of the Behistun Rock, was a Mede. This intercourse between Media and Mesopotamia establishes a connection both by proximity and historical data.
Directly north of Media to the east of the Caspian Sea is the area of Turkestan in central Asia. Of the ancient tribes who inhabited this region, Vernadsky states that "Turkestanian Scyths were undoubtedly Iranian."*
* Vernadsky; op. cit. pg. 51
The Japhetide tribe of Sarmatians moved across central Asia and the Pontic Steppes contemporaneously with the rise of the Roman Empire. We have shown them to be inhabiting the same region as the Slavic tribes, the consequent conclusion being that the Sarmatians were Slavic or had Slavic tribes among them. These Sarmatians were "Iranian in language."* (While there is no consensus of opinion with regard to the ethnic stock of the Scythians, the Sarmatians may be considered Iranian without doubt.* Clarkson, Jesse D.; A History of Russia; Random House, New York, 1961, pg. 13.
Slavic Tribes Iranian in BackgroundThe Alans, As Antes, Ros and Os are some of the names of Slavic tribes who moved across the Pontic Steppes. Historians have general agreement in ascribing Iranian background to them. "Of this Iranian stock there were various branches...of white Alans."*
*Pares; op. cit. pg. 10.
The Antes, a tribe developed among the Alans, became the "strongest tribe among the Slavs. They were ruled by Iranian clans in the second century."** Vernadsky; op. cit. pg. 5.
The Antes were also to be known as the Ant or As during their wanderings. Vernadsky, in his book, spends a great deal of time developing this relationship. "We repeat that some of these As (Antes) groups were organized by Iranians, while other As groups were purely Iranian."** Ibid, pg. 273.
The Slavic group As, or Antes, was probably a subtribe of the Alans, consequently Iranian. The Ros are a subtribe of the As. They were to give their name to the people of Ros later. As an As tribe, "the Ros were originally an Irano-Slav tribe."** Ibid, pg. 259
Cultural Background of Asiatic TribesThe Fertile Crescent region is the cradle of civilization. This cradle of civilization, from which culture spread, borders the area of South Russia and Turkestan. To the north of Mesopotamia at the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are the Mountains of Armenia, part of the Caucasus ranges. "The first real cultures in ancient Russia are at the fringes of the Fertile Crescent and Mediterranean Valley."*
* Ibid, pg. 20.
Tools of Mesopotamian types have been excavated in the Caucasus dating from 2000 B.C.* The use of iron came from Mesopotamia to the North Caucasian area by 1000 B.C. We have before noted that Scythians (including Iberians and Moschoi) were forging their own swords, axes, and daggers by the sixth century B.C. for soldiers in the armies of Darius and Xerxes.* Ibid, pg. 29.
Among the Slavic tribes in South Russia there are other cultural connections with Mesopotamia. Many words are similar or identical. There is also a close coordination between the old Babylonian system of weights and measures. So close is it that it may be concluded that ancient Slavic weights and measures were "based upon the Babylonian."** Ibid, p. 98.
One of the Iranian words that is found in South Russia is the word "Dan" meaning "river." Note the derivation, therefore, of the Don, the Danube, the Dnieper, and the Dniester.It seems safe to conclude from the foregoing evidence that the peoples of North Caucasia, Japhetide or Aryan in race, had derived their racial and cultural background from ancient Mesopotamia by way of the Caucasian and Median Mountains.
The Ros and Russia
"As the Goths advanced near to the Euxine [Black Sea] they encountered a purer race of Sarmatians, the Iazyges, the Alani and the Roxolani."* As we have shown the Sarmatian tribes were no doubt Slavic. Jordanes has been cited as giving the history of the interaction between the Sclaveni and the Goths as they moved from Scandinavia circa 200 A.D. Since the "Sarmatian tribes were distinguished by Sclavonic language" it is safe to conclude Slavic relationship.
* Gibbon; op. cit. Vol. I, pg. 214.
The Alani or Alans mentioned by Gibbon are the same as those discussed in the last chapter, who are directly related to the Antes or Rox-As. The Rox tribe is known also as the Rukhs, and the Rus (called by Vernadsky the most important tribe of the North Caucasian Alans) and the Ros.The word "Russia" is probably derived from the Rus or Rukhs. This Iranian tribe of Sclavic people imposed their name on others whom they subjugated, and "Rukhs As (Greek, Ros-As) or "Russias" may have been the result.*
* Vernadsky; op. cit. pg. 106-107.
The history and movements of the Ros, the most prominent tribe of the North Caucasian Alans, can be traced in classical authors. The As and subtribe Ros, alias "Roxolani," ranged far and wide but retained their identity for a number of centuries. The As or "Asii took Bactriana from the Greeks"* before the time of Christ.* Strabo; Book XI, 8:2
Strabo, in speaking of the limits of the inhabitable world, mentions "the Roxolanians, the most remote of the known Scythians...the regions beyond the Roxolanians become at once uninhabitable because of the cold; farther south of the Roxolanians are the Sarmatians who dwell beyond [north of] Lake Maeotis"* (the Sea of Azov). It can be seen from Strabo's account that the Roxolani lived in the extreme north shortly before the time of Christ. They seem to be a rather far-ranging tribe, however, since Strabo describes them as the farthest north of known people,** though how far north that was is not indicated, except that it is not beyond the source of the Dnieper. "Between the Tanais and the Dnieper dwell the Roxolani...dwellers in wagons with tents on them...We don't know if anyone lives north of them."**** Strabo; Book II, 5:7
By the time of Tacitus in the first century A.D. the Roxolani had moved closer to the Black Sea Steppes and were quite a bit more progressive in modern arts. In 69 A.D. Tacitus describes the Rhoxolians' weapons and means of warfare. They possessed long spears, rode on horseback, had two-handed sabres and coats of mail formed with iron plates.*
** Strabo; Book VII, 2:4.
*** Strabo; Book VII, 3:17.* Tacitus; op. cit. pg. 372.
These Rus-Alans or Rhoxolanians had begun to use their weapons of war and were among those barbarians making incursions into the Roman Empire for plunder. Tacitus describes one such attempt previous to 69 A.D. "The Rhoxolanians, a people of Sarmatia, had cut off two cohorts in the province of Maesia [present Bulgaria]. They came with 900 horsemen to ravage and plunder. The Sarmatians, loaded with booty, were taken by surprise (by Roman armies) under the Roman governor, Marcus Aponius."** Ibid.
The Rus then at this time appear to be semi-civilized, skilled barbarians, set on plunder, who were identified by Tacitus as a Sarmatian tribe,---"the Sarmatians loaded with booty..."Later the Roxolani moved into the Crimea. On Ptolemy's second century map of the inhabited world, the Roxolani are placed just north of the Black Sea and north of the Sea of Azov. Above them are the Asaei and the Alani. Ptolemy's map associates these people with this region about 170 A.D.*
* Brown; op. cit.
The movements of the Rhos or Ros or Rhukhs, alias Roxolani, then, may be seen from before the time of Christ in the extreme north, above the wandering tribes. In the first century they were plundering eastern Rome. By the second century they were a people of the North Crimea and the Pontic Steppes, where they stayed for some time. They are mentioned again as the Ros by Procopius in reference to the Byzantine Bishop Proclus, 434-447 A.D.* Proclus referred to the people of Ros who were threatening them from the North. He used the prophecy in Ezekiel (Ezek. 38:2) condemning the people of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. Although there is slight indication that the Hebrew word "Rosh," or "head," is a proper name in the Hebrew text, the Septuagint translators made it a proper name in the Greek text. Ezekiel wrote during the Babylonian captivity of the Jewish people while he was among the captives, circa 550 B.C. The Septuagint was translated in the third century B.C.** Vernadsky; op. cit. pg. 81.
Whether or not Ezekiel called the people of Ros by name cannot be clearly ascertained. However, it seems clear that the Septuagint translators (under the reign of Ptolemy I, the Egyptian successor to Alexander the Great) named a nation that was known to them. It this is so, it is the earliest mention of the Ros by name.It becomes clearer that the Ros were the major tribe of the As, Antes or Alans, who were a subtribe of the Sclavic Sarmatians. These tribes were known to the ancients by these names from before the time of Christ and were still so called in the sixth century. By the seventh century they had enlarged and either settled or ranged from the Adriatic Sea to Central Asia and from the Crimea to the Baltic.
The Moschoi
In the late sixth century one of the tribes in the North Caucasus was known as the Moschoi (pronounced Moskoi). The location, south of the present Russian heartland and the city of Moscow is enough to set our course of pursuit for the following pages. As we have seen the North Caucasus tribes are called Japhetides by a number of authors. This "Japhetic" division of mankind can only refer to the Mosaic record in the Table of Nations. Moses was obviously writing about a division of tribes who existed in Mesopotamia and who were dispersed from that point beginning about 2500 B.C. The time and the place are right. The record also contains the names of the major Japhetic tribes before their dispersal from Mesopotamia. They are: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
Gomer has been shown to correspond to Cimmeria, Madai is the Hebrew form of Media, Javan is the Hebrew word for Ionian translated Greece by the English translators and Hellas by the Septuagint. As in Genesis, Tubal and Meshech are paired together in classical histories. Their movements can be historically traced from Mesopotamia through Assyrian inscriptions and later through classical writers like Herodotus, Strabo, and Procopius and others, to the Caucasus Mountains.
Philologically the word "Meshech" and "Moschoi" are the same. The Hebrew form of the Japhetic tribal name of "Meshech" is also a three letter consonantal root: M-SH-CH. In Hebrew there is a dot over the medial letter which could indicate an "O," thus, "Moshch" or "Mosk" as the "K" is guttural letter "koph." In Hebrew and other Semitic languages a "u" is often substituted for an "o," hence "Mushch" or "Mushk" can be derived.
The same forms translated from Hebrew into Greek would become: "Mu" for M, "Sigma" for SH since there is no medial "H" in Greek. "Chi" for the guttural CH and we have a Greek transliteration of Mosch. The plural "oi" added gives the Greek form of Hebrew M-SH-CH to become Moschoi. This form is found in all the classical writers, many give the combination Moschoi and Tabal, which corresponds to the Biblical Meshech and Tubal.
It is widely understood (Garstang, among others) that the Muski of the Assyrian inscriptions and the Moschoi of Herodotos are the same.* That the names are philologically the same has already been demonstrated.
* Garstang; op. cit. pg. 11.
The Combined Forces of Celtic Cimmerian Gauls and Migrating Muscovites Destroyed Hittite Civilization About 1200 B.C.
Canaanite nations came under a twofold curse in the Biblical record. According to the curse, Semitic and Japhetic nations were to destroy and enslave the Canaanite tribes. The Bible records and repeats the curse up to the time of the Semitic portion of the fulfillment of the curse, when the tribes of Israel invaded Palestine under Joshua and either killed or enslaved the Canaanite nations dwelling there.*
* Miller, Fred P.; Christian Attitudes and Racial Problems; Rutland, Vermont, 1960; revised and enlarged edition published by Moellerhaus Books, Clermont, FL, 1993. See for a fuller description of the fulfillment of the "Curse of Canaan."
Japhetic Tribes of Meshech and Tubal Extinguished the Greatest of the Canaanite Civilizations--The Hittites.
The Canaanite tribe of Hittites developed a civilization in east central Anatolia (eastern Turkey) which has been the site of many archaeological and geographical surveys. According to Garstang, archaeologist of the Hittites, the Hittites rivaled the Egyptians and Mesopotamians in the development of culture, architecture, art, and trade. According to Garstang, there was a time that the Hittites appeared to be a force superior to the Egyptians. However, not only their superiority, culture and civilization, but their existence was brought to an abrupt halt about 1200 B.C.*
* Garstang, J.; The Hittite Empire (U.K. edition); London, 1929.
This history was enlarged upon by Garstang's nephew, O. R. Gurney, who received the archaeological mantle from his famous uncle. Gurney states that the Hittite confederacy occupied a mountainous region easy to defend, but which was unfortunately, adjacent to the northern end of the Mesopotamian Valley from which Japhetic nationals were still migrating 1400 to 1200 B.C.* Gomer, (according to Garstang, (called Gimmer in the Assyrian records as we have shown above), had migrated from Mesopotamia through the Caucasus to the regions north of the Black Sea. This tribe, the source of the original Celts, was called Kimmeroi in the Greek sources of Strabo and Procopius. The Celtic Cimmerians, because of inhospitable climate and pressure of migrating Scythian tribes, began to leave the area around the Crimea for the south about 1200 B.C. Among the Cimmerian tribes there were other names in use; beside Celts there were also Gauls. An uncoordinated migration began about 1200 B.C. in two groups to the regions south of the Black Sea, part moving east and part moving west, establishing settlements on the way (one reputed to be Troy). One group crossed the Pontic Bosporus, moving toward the Hittite kingdom from the west, while the other group came from the northeast through the Caucasus and also converged on the Hittite kingdom. This migration of Gomer, or Cimmer, accidentally coincided with the migrations of Meshech and Tubal, called Mushki and Thobal by the Assyrians and Moschoi and Tabal by the classical Greeks.** They moved north on the Euphrates and converged and impacted the Hittite nation at the same moment the Celtic Cimmerians were displacing them from the east and the west.*** The devastation of the Hittite homeland in central Anatolia was followed by an attempted renewal of national identity elsewhere but was only momentarily successful. According to Gurney:*Gurney, O. R.; The Hittites; Penguin, London, 1972.
** Gurney; op. cit. pgs. 40, 45, 128.
*** See map of Hittites in Appendix."...for 200 years the Cappadocian Hittite kingdom had dominated the other states of a great Hittite confederacy such as Carchemish, Milid, and Hamath, which were mentioned in the Assyrian records, that it had been overrun about 1200 B.C. by the invading Mushki, whom the Assyrians found in occupation of that part of the country in the eighth century, and that the other Hittite states simply resumed their independence under the hegemony of Carchemish. We shall see, however, that the Syrian Hittite kingdoms of the first millennium B.C. were, with the exception of Carchemish itself, new states, which had come into existence after the Cappadocian [Hittite] kingdom fell [in 1200 B.C.]."*Although coordinated by "mere chance" (?) this threefold attack brought an end to the Hittite civilization of central Anatolia. A group of warlike Celtic Cimmerian barbarians, called Gauls, was to remain in the Hittites' place, and the area would henceforth be known as Galatia. That barbarian nation would later be among the first to accept the Gospel through the preaching of the apostle Paul. The Mushki and Tubal or Moschoi and Tabal, after their attack on the Hittites, then supplanted them and occupied their lands. Later they moved into the lower Caucasus Mountains, where they would be for the next 1800 years, waiting for their "time" to enter again, the stream of history. (cf. Acts 17:26 and Ezek. 38, 39).* Gurney; ibid. pg. 6.
But they would not leave central Anatolia immediately. An anonymous psalmist who wrote Psalm 102 mentions Meshech as one of the peoples that the dispersed Jews lived among after 900 B.C. According to Ewell and Spence the psalm was written to be chanted by pilgrims from the diaspora as they made their ascent to Jerusalem. The above authors state the Jews were lamenting their plight among the Cappadocian Mushki or else Meshech is a type of all barbarians in general. They cite five other theologians who share the same view of the psalm.* In any case this psalm shows Meshech was a well known tribe of people still living in Hittite Anatolian high lands well after the disastrous end of the Hittite nation.* Ewell and Spence; op.cit.; vol. 8, pg. 178.
From Genesis 10 it is seen that MSHCH was a Japhetic tribe in Mesopotamia circa 2500 B.C. Hamitic Sumerians first gained control of Mesopotamia. They were displaced by the Assyrians after 1900 B.C. who would dominate the region for more than 1000 years. Eight hundred years into their suzerainty as "Assyrian armies advanced [north] in the twelfth century B.C....against the former frontiers [of the Hittites] upon the Euphrates [they] found themselves in conflict with a people whom they called the Muski."** Gurney; op. cit. pg. 11.
The Muski gave place to the Assyrians but did not disappear as a people, for by "750 B.C. the Assyrians moved north through Cilicia and in the Taurus Mountains they found the Muski established. (emphasis mine.)"** Ibid.
The coincidence of the extermination of Hittite culture by these Japhetic tribes at the same time or shortly after the extermination of Canaanite Palestinians, (of whom the Hittites are a subtribe) by Semitic Israelites (all being consummated circa 1400 to 1200 B.C.) is an amazing fulfillment of the prophecy of Noah--"Cursed be Canaan," whom he said would become the servant of Japhet and Shem.
"And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant."*Let us not get so lost in the history, that we miss the wonder of the divine foreknowledge of God. Moses penned this prophecy about 1500 B.C. as being in Noah's mouth a millennium before. What astounding evidence is this prediction and fulfillment of the demise of the Anatolian Hittites and the Palestinian Canaanites, to the inspiration of the Bible!* Genesis 9:25-27.
Tracing continuity of a tribe under the same name for over five hundred years in and near Mesopotamia indicates a strong unity. It is not surprising to find the same people again in the Caucasus Mountains under the same name, though Hellenized to "Moschoi" where they continued almost 2000 years in unbroken habitation.
The Meshech and Tubal of the Genesis 10 record appear as Moschoi and Tabal of Herodotus and Strabo. While describing the contingents in the armies of Xerxes, Herodotus mentions "Scythians, Caspians, Moschoi and Tabal" arrayed against the Greeks, and pairs them in two different places.* In the first selection he gives a description of the unusual helmets. In the latter he describes how their taxes were paid. Herodotus is a fifth century B.C. historian. The Moschoi and Tabal are clearly among the strong tribes of North Caucasia by his time (484-424 B.C.).*
* Herodotus; Book III: 94, and VIII: 78.
In the late fifth century or early sixth century B.C., Tubal and Meshech are described as traders with the Phoenecian city of Tyre in slaves and brass.** Ezekiel 27:13.
Their identity in the same location in the Caucasus extends to the time of Strabo in a description of the region circa 44 B.C., "Sarmatians, Scythians, Aorsi and Siraci [dwell] as far south as the Caucasian or Moschian Mountains."** Strabo; Book XI, 2:1.
The Meschi (Meskoi) dwelt in the Caucasus Mountains still in the sixth century A.D. They are described by Procopius as agrarian and as a subject people to the Iberians.** Procopius; Book VIII, 2: 24, 25.
In reference to these tribes of the Caucasus, patriarch Proclus in the fifth century, commenting on the Hunno-Alanic invasions, quotes Ezekiel's prophecy about the people of "Rhos, Meshech and Tubal."* He was referring to the Ros, Moschoi and Tabal who were clearly within his knowledge and then threatening Byzantium with Slavic invasions, which were indeed accomplished. In the next few generations the Balkans would be Slavic--no longer Greek.* Vernadsky; op.cit. pg. 258.
The move from "Mshch" to "Muski" to "Moschoi" or "Moskoi" to "Moscow" and "Muskovy"is relatively simple, philologically. Historically, however, there is a veil on the movement of the Moschoi to the location of Moscow on the Moskva River. Even though there is clear evidence that they were still in the Caucasus as late as the sixth century and perhaps the early seventh century. After that they no longer were there and the name is gone from the region where they lived (from Herodotus to Procopius) over 1000 years! That is a long time and indicates a strong tribal identity which would not easily pass away. Where did they go?Let us answer the question. If the Moskoi and Tabali migrated from the North Caucasus as tribes in the sixth or seventh century, had they turned eastward they would find the formidable Volga River as an obstacle. Had they turned west, the Don River would tend to move them toward the north, away from the mountains they had just left. Tracing a course northward, led by the two mighty streams, the Moscow region would have been the goal which we know was not settled until the eighth to the ninth century. Tobolsk was settled and established at the same time by Slavs migrating to Siberia. Meshech and Tubal is without doubt Moscow and Tobolsk.
Moskva became the name of the river near Moscow, which as we have shown above is part of the Volga system, by the year 800 A.D.* The derivation of the words "Moscow," Moskva," "Muskovite," and "Muskovy," by 800 A.D. has not been solved locally, therefore, it is clear that the names were brought there by those immigrating from A.D. 600 to 800. It is clear that from "Mshch" to "Muski" to "Moschoi" to "Moskow" or "Moscow" is philologically correct.
* Ibid.
It is also clear that Meshech and Tubal in Mesopotamia was called Muski and Thobal or Tabal by Assyrians. They moved to the Taurus Mountains impacting the Hittites and from there to the Caucasus where the Greeks referred to them as the Moschoi and Tabal for 1,000 years. The trip from there to Moscow and Tobolsk is historically, chronologically, geographically, and philologically connected. The prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39 refers to the people of Ros, Meshech and Tubal, that is Russia, Muscovi, and Siberian Tobolsk.The origins of the Russian people are as obscure and they are complex. One feels as though he has been peering through a veil into the tribal backgrounds we have discussed. We have attempted to lift the veil. This study has succeeded in shedding light on the numerous inhabitants of South Russia. Acquaintances have been made with Scythians, Cimmerians, Sarmatians, Veneti, Sclaveni, Antes, Rukhs, Moschoi, Tabal and other Japhetide tribes. If this is the reader's first acquaintance with these names, they will doubtless appear very obscure, but the more critically study is applied to these proposals, the more these outlines made here will be justified by their accuracy.
These tribes have been traced back to Iran and Mesopotamia philologically, culturally, nationally and racially. A great many strong connections have been made. The strength of the evidence is apparent. It is more so in the absence of opposing evidence. Surely, to this writer, Meshech and Tubal are Moschoi and Tabal who are Moscow and Tobolsk, and are therefore, with Russia, the nations mentioned as leaders in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
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