Rosh Ain’t Russia

The possible invasion of the Ukraine by Russia has rekindled cold war “prophecy hermeneutics” that being that the “Rosh” in Ezekiel 38:3 is Russia therefore Russia is the nation of the Antichrist or at least  the leader of a future Ezekiel 38 war, but a true exegetical look at the passage shows Rosh Ain’t Russia. If there’s an invasion of the Ukraine and especially a messy one and even more so if the US gets involved there’s no doubt, you’ll hear this Rosh report in Christian circles whether you’ve heard it before or not. I’m trying to cut that conversation off before it happens and even more so drive each of us to the text rather than the New York Times. A friend of mine recently told me that modern prophecy teaching tends to be more of a popular eisegesis than a Biblical exegesis and that’s so true.

Exegesis and eisegesis aren’t words we throw around much at church and definitely not in the “real world,” but sit in on a pastor’s conference and you’ll hear them. Eisegesis means that we read into the Bible and the interpretation of it our own preconceived ideas, while exegesis means that the Bible drives the meaning. Another words exegesis takes the Bible for what it says, while through eisegesis we can make it say what we want it to say. Believe me you want your pastor exegeting not eisegeting. Where this happens in prophecy is that we look at events going on in the world and then read those events into the Bible rather than reading the Biblical text and letting it speak for itself. You can see how Russia could have been read into the Bible during the cold war.

There are three prophetic aspects in the Bible that have been used to show that Russia would be the Antichrist or a leading player at the end of the age. First, is the Hebrew word “Rosh” in Ezekiel 38:2, we’ll come back to this. Second, is there are several prophecies that talk about the final invasion of Israel at the end of the age coming from the north. This is seen in Daniel and Joel. Though Russia would be far north of Jerusalem, “far north” in Biblical times often referred to what is the modern Turkey and Syria region. Even Assyria and Babylon were said to invade from the north for the path they would use brought them into Israel through the north, but finding them on the map they would more eastward and almost in line with Israel. The monikers “man of the north” or “invasion from the north” aren’t Biblically sound alone to point to Russia. Third, the image of the Bear-beast in Daniel 7 has been attributed to being a clue that this final empire must be Russia. This bear imagery isn’t enough either to connect to modern Russia. For one the bear isn’t even representing the final kingdom. If Daniel 7 is parallel to Daniel 2 then it would point to the Medes and Persians. Those are just a couple reasons why the bear would not be a solid reference to Russia.

Now back to “Rosh”. Ezekiel 38 is an incredible passage in which God is speaking to a leader figure called Gog (whom I believe is the Antichrist, but that’s a conversation for another day). God then names specific places in which Gog rules. In naming these places, God doesn’t use the modern names, but rather ancient names of these locations. Most of these ancient names point back to the Table of Nations found in Genesis 10 which describes the settlement of people following the Tower of Babel event. The places mentioned are Magog, Meshek, Tubal, Gomer, and Beth Togarmah which point to the modern-day Turkey region. Persia represents modern-day Iran. Cush is modern-day Sudan, while Put is modern-day Libya. The prophecy continues to describe how Gog leads this group of nations against Israel in the last days.

The Hebrew word “Rosh” is found in Ezekiel 38:2. Modern prophecy teachers have said that it likely represents Russia, but “rosh” isn’t used only in this passage, it’s found over six-hundred times in the Old Testament. And every one of those times it’s translated to English “chief” or “head.” One of the major times this is seen is the Jewish New Year—Rosh Hashanah. This term means that New Year’s Day is the “chief day” or “head day” of the new year. So, if the word is translated chief or head-leader in all 601 of 602 times, the Russia idea is a very big stretch.

Though this usage of “Rosh” being Russia is seen mainly in modern prophecy teaching, there are some Bible translations who treat “Rosh” as a place. Look at these comparisons:

Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal… – KJV

Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal… – NIV

 Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal… – ESV

In most Bible translations like the three above “Rosh” is translated as “chief prince”. In which they mean that Gog is the chief head of Magog and the other nations listed, but a few like the NKJV translate “Rosh” as a name of a nation.

Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal… – NKJV

Even if this one time out of six-hundred the Hebrew word “Rosh” needed to be translated to a place—there’s still no evidence that it means Russia.

I know this may seem like an unnecessary argument, but it’s likely future events concerning Russia could bring teachings of Russia being the Antichrist nation or leader of this Jerusalem invasion to our ears, but that’s not what the Bible reveals. Now Russia could be a player at the end of the age and in the time leading up to that, but one thing is certain Rosh ain’t Russia.

This article first appeared in Jake’s syndicated column Stand Firm & Live Epic as published in The Baptist Trumpet and other publications. Typically these are released after six months here, but due to current events this has been published ahead of time. To read the articles at release subscribe here.

Jake McCandless

Executive Director of Stand Firm and lead pastor of Epic Church NWA in Springdale, AR and multiple award-winning author, Jake has a B.A. in Bible and Pastoral Studies from Central Baptist College, and an Advanced Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Former regular contributor to the Baptist Press and WND News with popular conservative voices such as Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Ben Carson, Chuck Norris, Greg Laurie, Ben Schapiro, Joel Richardson, and others. He now is a weekly contributor for Israel, Islam, and the End Times and Armageddon News. He has authored books such as the, award-winning Spiritual Prepper from WND Books. Award-winning devotional books, Invincibleand For Uncertain Times, he authored the ground-breaking children’s book, Jesus and His White Horse from CrossLink Publishing. He is also a regular guest on national and international radio and streaming web shows, along with hosting his weekly live streaming program Talking Stand Firm and weekly podcast Stand Firm Parents.