9/25/22, 3:30 PM Gomer - Wikipedia

Gomer
Gomer (Hebrew: ‎‫ ֹּג ֶמ ר‬Gōmer, pronounced  [ˈɡomeʁ]; Greek: Γαμὲρ, romanized:  Gamér) was the eldest
son of Japheth (and of the Japhetic line), and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, according
to the "Table of Nations" in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10).

The eponymous Gomer, "standing for the whole family," as the compilers of the Jewish Encyclopedia
expressed it,[1] is also mentioned in Book of Ezekiel 38:6 as the ally of Gog, the chief of the land of
Magog.

The Hebrew name Gomer refers to the Cimmerians, who dwelt in what is now southern Russia,
"beyond the Caucasus",[2] and attacked Assyria in the late 7th century BC. The Assyrians called them
Gimmerai; the Cimmerian king Teushpa was defeated by Assarhadon of Assyria sometime between
681 and 668 BC.[3]

Contents
Traditional identifications
Gomer's descendants
Citations
General references

Traditional identifications
Josephus placed Gomer and the "Gomerites" in Anatolian Galatia: "For Gomer founded those whom
the Greeks now call Galatians, but were then called Gomerites."[4] Galatia in fact takes its name from
the ancient Gauls (Celts) who settled there. However, the later Christian writer Hippolytus of Rome in
c. 234 assigned Gomer as the ancestor of the Cappadocians, neighbours of the Galatians.[5] Jerome (c.
390) and Isidore of Seville (c. 600) followed Josephus' identification of Gomer with the Galatians,
Gauls and Celts.

According to tractate Yoma, in the Talmud, Gomer is identified as "Germamya".[6]

In Islamic folklore, the Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounts a Persian
tradition that Gomer lived to the age of 1000, noting that this record equalled that of Nimrod, but was
unsurpassed by anyone else mentioned in the Torah.[7]

The Cimbri were a tribe settled on Jutland peninsula in Germania (now Denmark) ca. 200 BC, who
were variously identified in ancient times as Cimmerian, Germanic or Celtic. In later times, some
scholars connected them with the Welsh people, and descendants of Gomer. Among the first authors
to identify Gomer, the Cimmerians, and Cimbri, with the Welsh name for themselves, Cymri, was the
English antiquarian William Camden in his Britannia (first published in 1586).[8] In his 1716 book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomer#:~:text=Gomer (Hebrew%3A ‫ֹּג ֶמ ר‬%E2%80%8E Gōmer,Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10). 1/3

9/25/22, 3:30 PM Gomer - Wikipedia

Drych y Prif Oesoedd, Welsh antiquary Theophilus Evans also posited that the Welsh were descended
from the Cimmerians and from Gomer;[9] this was followed by a number of later writers of the 18th
and 19th centuries.[9][10]

This etymology is considered false by modern Celtic linguists, who follow the etymology proposed by
Johann Kaspar Zeuss in 1853, which derives Cymry from the Brythonic word *Combrogos ("fellow
countryman").[10][11][12] The name Gomer (as in the pen-name of 19th century editor and author
Joseph Harris, for instance) and its (modern) Welsh derivatives, such as Gomeraeg (as an alternative
name for the Welsh language)[13] became fashionable for a time in Wales, but the Gomerian theory
itself has long since been discredited as an antiquarian hypothesis with no historical or linguistic
validity.[14]

In 1498 Annio da Viterbo published fragments known as Pseudo-Berossus, now considered a forgery,
claiming that Babylonian records had shown that Comerus Gallus, i.e. Gomer son of Japheth, had
first settled in Comera (now Italy) in the 10th year of Nimrod following the dispersion of peoples. In
addition, Tuiscon, whom Pseudo-Berossus calls the fourth son of Noah, and says ruled first in
Germany/Scythia, was identified by later historians (e.g. Johannes Aventinus) as none other than
Ashkenaz, Gomer's son.

Gomer's descendants
Three sons of Gomer are mentioned in Genesis 10, namely

Ashkenaz
Riphath (spelled Diphath in I Chronicles)
Togarmah

Children of Ashkenaz were originally identified with the Scythians (Assyrian Ishkuza), then after the
11th century, with Germany.[15][16]

Ancient Armenian and Georgian chronicles lists Togarmah as the ancestor of both people who
originally inhabited the land between two Black and Caspian Seas and between two inaccessible
mountains, Mount Elbrus and Mount Ararat respectively.[17][18]

According to Khazar records, Togarmah is regarded as the ancestor of the Turkic-speaking

peoples.[19]

Citations
1. Jewish Encyclopedia (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view_page.jsp?artid=344&letter=G&pid
=0). Funk and Wagnalls. 1906. p. 40. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
2. Cambridge Ancient History Vol. II pt. 2, p. 425
3. Barry Cunliffe (ed.), The Oxford History of Prehistoric Europe (Oxford University Press, 1994), pp.
381–382.
4. Antiquities of the Jews, I:6.
5. Chronica, 57.
6. Yoma 10a
7. Tabari, Prophets and Patriarchs (Vol. 2 of History of the Prophets and Kings)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomer#:~:text=Gomer (Hebrew%3A ‫ֹּג ֶמ ר‬%E2%80%8E Gōmer,Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10). 2/3

9/25/22, 3:30 PM Gomer - Wikipedia

8. Camden's Britannia (http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp;jsessionid=0CC4D5FD7

805C8042FA29B9063F849DD?t_id=Camden&c_id=2), I.17,19.
9. Lloyd, p. 191
10. University of Wales Dictionary, vol. II, p. 1485, Gomeriad. The editors note the false etymology.
11. Lloyd, p. 192
12. University of Wales Dictionary, vol. I, page 770.
13. University of Wales Dictionary, vol. II, p. 1485.
14. See, for instance: Piggot, pp. 132, 172.
15. Kraus, S. (1932), "Hashemot 'ashkenaz usefarad", Tarbiẕ 3:423-435
16. Kriwaczek, Paul (2005). Yiddish Civilization: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation. London:
Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
17. Leonti Mroveli. "The Georgian Chronicles" (http://rbedrosian.com/gc2.htm).
18. Moses of Chorene. "The History of Armenia" (http://www.vehi.net/istoriya/armenia/khorenaci/01.ht
ml).
19. Pritsak O. & Golb. N: Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century, Ithaca: Cornell Univ.
Press, 1982.

General references
Lloyd, John Edward (1912). A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian
Conquest.
Piggot, Stuart (1968). The Druids Thames and Hudson:London.
University of Wales Dictionary, vol. II.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gomer&oldid=1097063918"

This page was last edited on 8 July 2022, at 11:47 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0;

additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomer#:~:text=Gomer (Hebrew%3A ‫ֹּג ֶמ ר‬%E2%80%8E Gōmer,Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10). 3/3