This Article: (2 Pages)
- 1. Hebrew Rosh and Greek Rus
- 2. The Rus and the Vikings
2) The Rus and the Vikings
The Vikings as a people are a late offshoot from some independent minded tribes who made the waterways, shallow inlets and decks of boats their home. Magnus Magnusson is an expert, having being involved in digs in Scandinavia for much of his life. His work “The Vikings” (revised in 2000) encapsulates a lifetime of his research. If anyone knows where Vikings came from it would be him.
There was settlement in Denmark from at least the time of the Roman Iron Age. These were called by Romans 'Barbarians' or 'Sythians' by Greeks. A growing mass of the different families of the Japthetite people in tribes who migrated and counter migrated.
The Vikings appear as traders based in Helgo, Sweden in the 5th century -AD!! The earliest Viking boat of the type that became 'the' Viking ship is from about 400AD. It's very late. The Roman Empire was in decline. At about the same time the Angles and Saxons were migrating to England. The Viking villages at Helgo and Birka had craftsman's workshops. By the sixth century they were trading with India. At Helgo they found a bronze Buddha from India, so little was thought of it was just dropped and lost, to be found centuries later! It appears they went North to Sweden and Norway to find furs to trade in an increasingly settled Europe. They were pioneering users of skis and skates (made of bone) to get the fur and transport it. The drive to trade and transport their goods led to the development of the Viking ship, and that in turn led to more expanding trade. But they didn't write much. When they did it was much, much later and it was to record their mythology (which isn't very helpful). In the 13th century many sagas were written. But by then it was at the height of Scandinavian power.
Magnusson says the sagas are not to be taken too literally, but we may take a few points from them In the excerpt below, note how they travel to the ancient homeland of the gods? Via Gibraltar!
The orb of the world, which mankind inhabits, is riveted by many fjords, so that great seas run into the land from the Outer Ocean. Thus, it is known that a great sea goes in through NORVASUND (Straits of Gibraltar) all the way to the land of Jerusalem. From that same sea a long bight stretches towards the north-east, called the Black Sea, which divides the three continents of the earth: to the east lies Asia, to the west lies Europe, but to the north of the Black Sea Greater Sweden or Sweden the Cold (Russia [note as put by translator])
Through Greater Sweden (Russia) from the range of mountains that lie to the north beyond the edge of human habitation, there runs a river properly called the Tanais (Don), which flows into the Black Sea. In Asia to the east of the TANAIS there was a land called Asaland or Asaheim (land of the Æsir); its chief city was called Asgard (Home of the Æsir). The city was ruled by a chieftain called Odin and it was a great centre for sacrifices...Snorri Sturlason: Heimskringla: Ynglinga saga.
(italics in brackets modern additions).
The gods of the Vikings came from Asaland, via the river Don, the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.. then up to Sweden. At this point in time, in the 13th Century, 'Sweden the Great' or 'Sweden the Cold' might be identified by modern writers as “Russia.” Though by the 13th century the Viking power and trade there had waned.
The Viking's gods in their legend came from the area of the Black Sea but Via the Atlantic. Was this legend confirming they came from Noah? Note by contrast that the Swedes from 820AD onwards traded via land and river routes from the Baltic. Totally opposite way of travel!
Earth map by NASA; Data based on w:File:Viking Age.png, which is in turn based on home.online
Wikipedia states, “The Slavic tribes in Russia were weak and submitted to the Vikings with little resistance, but also rapidly assimilated their conquerors.”
It is a fact that Vikings, mostly Swedes, went via Russia to the Middle East. A whetstone from the late 10th Century found in the Viking centre of Gotland, in Sweden, reads, “Ormiga, Ulfar: Greece, Jerusalem, Iceland, Serkland (land of Saracens).” Ormiga and Ulfar were Gotland boys, but they had been to those places. Another is a stone on a bridge in memory of a farmer named Osten (Orsten) by his wife Estrid read, “He visited Jerusalem, and died out in Greece.” One farmer had a memorial stone put for his two sons: “One died in the West, the other in the East.” One stone shows the extent of the Rus trade: “Hegbjorn and his brothers ...raised stones for Hrafn. They went far into Aifur.” Aifur was the name of the cataracts of the river Dnieper in southern Russia. They had all gone to trade there, but Hrafn had died there. They even found runic grafitti in the Hagia Sofia it reads 'alfdan' or as it was clearly missing the first letter 'Halfdan', a common name meaning “Half Dane” (presumably the other half was not Dane but something else).
Magnusson quotes the witness of the Arab diplomat Ibn Fadlan who saw a Rus funeral in Russia in the year 922. He wrote of his contacts with the Rus. Magnusson goes into the debate about who founded the Rus. He notes the Western scholars have tended to believe that Russia was created by the Swedes. However Russian scholars think it was already a Slav state and the Rus already there. Magnusson summarized the latest research as the Soviet Union had opened up and their digs are now accessible. The truth of the matter is shown again and again. One famous place of Viking activity Staraya Lagoda (see Map above) showed it was a Slav settlement founded at least a century before the Vikings began to leave a trace there. The earliest layers are non-Scandinavian, and all the artifacts clearly Slav. The archeology dates the newer layer of Scandinavian finds (of which there were many) at the middle of the 9th century. Every written account is from much later.
What might have happened was that some Vikings intermarried with Slavs. Then taking power, they united the Ros and sought to keep the next generation of Vikings out by building a fortress town. But by then they were all Slav in culture, and Slav in identity. The view that most fits the evidence is that the Vikings were mere traders, and the Rus/Ros were native to the area. There is a bare 5% of Scandinavian graves found, and most Scandinavian objects found are limited to towns on the rivers and to 9th and the 10th century. Also the Rus are described as tall and fair. It is known that of the Vikings it was the Swedes who traded into Russia, with the Norwegians and Danes raiding-trading more with England. Among the Swedes, who traded with the Rus there are more tall-fair than say for example the Danes (the Danes who traded more to the West). Is that because the Swedes traded with and took wives of the solid, tall, fair Rus?
Magnusson quotes a Russian account from 880 listing the forces with Oleg who went from Novogorod to Kiev and conquered Kiev as “the Varangian (Scandinavians), Slavs and others who accompanied him called Rus.” Oleg the prince of Kiev is said to have proclaimed, “We the Rus.” The Rus have some similarities to Vikings and seem by the time of Oleg to have leaders with Viking names, but there were differences also. It seems the original peoples had integrated with those who had come to trade. But nowhere do Swedes, or Vikings, claim to be Rus. Some Swedes came to rule some Slavs, but then again a Dane ruled Greece as King in recent times! It didn't make the Greeks, 'Danes'. When Vikings were called 'Rus', or 'Ros' it only applied to the Vikings who with the Slavs had settled along the Russian rivers. The Rus leader was known as a Khagan which is a Turkic title (also Hungarian). When they were trading as Vikings via Russia they were called 'Varangians'. In Danish the word for Russians, even now, Rus-land.
Evidence for the Rus, Ros or also Rox being traders that predate the Vikings is that at the time of the translation of the Septuagint between the 3rd to 1st Century BC they were named. Scythians came to refer to all Barbarians, but among them, there were the 'Rox' from the tribe known as the 'As' also 'Roxolanians' or 'Rox-As.' Strabo can be checked.
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
** Strabo; Book VII, 2:4.
*** Strabo; Book VII, 3:17. h ttp://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/rusorig.htm
When he was speaking of the far north, Strabo lived in Pontus, in modern Turkey. This source quotes from some others, also able to be verified.
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.
When the trading Swedes turned up in the 9th century they joined a mixed bunch including other Caucasian peoples, and notably Slavs, who had already carved out the trade routes. The archaeological evidence is that Slav settlement predates the Vikings.
Ezekiel could not 'locate' Meshech and Tubalas they were of no fixed address at that time! Sources who referred to them often also noted these peoples as nomadic and traders. Ezekiel was, in their case, referring to the people who would do what was prophesied. He addresses a person “Gog.” Who the Ros were is perhaps unimportant. The important fact is that Ros/ Rus/ Rox was the term which was used to describe the traders of the rivers of what has become Russia. Russia is the land of the Rus.
The policies of Russia matter today far more than those of Turkey. The curious thing to note is that from the 1800's Russia was not the great power it came to be. Ottoman Turkey was a greater power but beginning to be 'the sick man of Europe'. Russia was among the great powers, but not the greatest among them. Russia had much to fear from France and a united Germany/ Prussia. Austria-Hungary was still powerful. Russia could not defeat France in 1812, the weather and disease did that. The events from 1800 eroded continental European power and increased the power of just two nations: Russia and America. WW1 and WW2 weakened most France and Germany. Germany had been a global superpower challenging Britain until WW1.
By 1948 the two nations Russia and America, entirely dominated the globe. The few nations that did fall into either orbit were called “the third world” So great was the pull on resources by both superpowers, that 'the third world' came to mean 'backward'.
Has this changed in 2012? Is there any Arab nation pushing into the G8? They do not even make the G8 +5. Turkey might swap America for Russia. Russia and America still have the technological edge, though Germany is again among the great nations.
Since 2008, during the Beijing Olympics, when Putin's Russia was behind the events in Ossetia Georgia, and when America did nothing to help Georgia, the whole region of the Caucasus has fallen solidly into the zone of influence of Russia, including as far North as Poland.
We might look at what Jews think of Ezekiel 38...This is Chabad.org which makes it a good representative of modern Orthodox Jews, who are doing much to re-interest Jews in their heritage. How do they translate it?
One of the famous prophecies of Ezekiel in regard to the final redemption of Israel is the prophecy about "Gog and Magog" who will lead other nations against Israel, but suffer a final debacle upon the mountains of the Holy Land. This will be the final reckoning with Israel's enemies, preceding the final redemption. Of this world shaking event, the prophet said:
"And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the L-rd G-d, that my fury shall come up in my face... in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land Of Israel... And I will call for a sword against him (Gog) throughout all my mountains... and I will rain upon him, and upon his hands, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I become great, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the L-rd.
Thou, Son of Man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus said the L-rd G-d: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and lead thee astray, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fill out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the peoples that are with thee... And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell securely in the isles: and they shall know that I am the L-rd. So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them profane my holy name any more: and the nations shall know that I am the L-rd, the Holy One in Israel (ch. 38:18-39:7)."
The prophet described in detail the New Jerusalem, the New Beth Hamikdosh (Temple) and the New Priesthood which would eventually flourish under the reign of the House of David, the true Moshiach.
But what were Jews to do in the meantime?
Ezekiel was a great teacher. He taught that the revival of the whole nation could come only through the revival of each individual. Every Jew individually was responsible for his life and conduct and had at the same time a responsibility towards the entire nation. The secret of Redemption lay in absolute loyalty to G-d and His Torah. G-d is always ready to forgive the sinner who returns to Him in sincere repentance. "I delight not in the death of the wicked, saith the L-rd, but that he return from his evil way and live," Ezekiel taught and preached again and again.
Under Ezekiel's influence, the exiles built synagogues and houses of Torahstudy in Babylon, and the spirit of Judaism was kept very much alive. When Ezekiel died, he was sadly mourned by all Jews, but his prophecies remained to inspire them forever.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112374/jewish/The-Prophet-Ezekiel.htm
This is a Jewish translation (though it looks a bit like the KJV). They don't go into who Rosh, Meshech and Tubal are, but write it equates to “Israel's enemies.” Israel knows who its enemies are
From before 1860 Russia had eyes on the Middle East. Israel has a very patchy, interesting relationship with Russia. Russia has a foot in Jerusalem since 2008 with sovereignty (ownership) over an Orthodox compound called the Sergei Courtyard (2008 is the same year Russia moved on Georgia and Ossetia). This land was bought in 1860 to give Russia influence over Jerusalem, but the British negated the purchase after WW1.
In an ancient historical parallel, John Garstang (1929) concluded that circa. 1200BC it was the traders Meshech and Tubal, with Gomer (Celtic, Cimmerians called Gauls), who wiped out the far more powerful Hittites North of Israel. We know from Arabic records when the descendants of Meshech and Tubal called themselves, in confederacy with others, 'Rus' and where they lived, on the rivers of Modern Russia. Both Josiah and Cyrus were named long before they were born. In Ezekiel's day people knew who were Meshech and Tubal, but in our day the same peoples are Russ-ian.
To underline the point that the Rus may have been named like Cyrus, when Russia took up Byzantine culture, they wrote their own name in Greek exactly the same as the Greek translation of the Hebrew 'Rosh' from Ezekiel 38. Wikipedia: “The modern name of Russia (Rossiya), which came into use in the 17th century, is derived from the Greek Ρωσσία (nowadays spelled Ρωσία) which in turn derives from Ρως, an early Greek name for the people of Rus”. Is Russia named in the Bible? It's more than named. The 'Rus' were named because of the Bible in it's Greek translation - and it occurred in modern times. Even now 'Russia' in modern Greek is Ρωσία ( Ρως – ia)..
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From here to where?
