Gomer (Hebrew:גֹּמֶרGōmer;Greek:Γαμὲρ,romanized: Gamér) was the eldest son ofJapheth (and of theJaphetic line), and father ofAshkenaz,Riphath, andTogarmah, according to the "Table of Nations" in theHebrew Bible (Genesis 10).
Theeponymous Gomer, "standing for the whole family," as the compilers ofThe Jewish Encyclopedia expressed it,[1] is also mentioned inBook of Ezekiel 38:6 as the ally ofGog, the chief of the land ofMagog.
The Hebrew nameGomer refers to theCimmerians, who dwelt inPontic–Caspian steppe, "beyond the Caucasus",[2] and attackedAssyria in the late 7th century BC. The Assyrians called themGimmerai; the Cimmerian king Teushpa was defeated byAssarhadon of Assyria sometime between 681 and 668 BC.[3]
Josephus placed Gomer and the "Gomerites" inAnatolianGalatia: "For Gomer founded those whom theGreeks now callGalatians, but were then called Gomerites."[4] Galatia in fact takes its name from the ancientGauls (Celts) who settled there. However, the later Christian writerHippolytus of Rome inc. 234 assigned Gomer as the ancestor of theCappadocians, neighbours of the Galatians.[5]Jerome (c. 390) andIsidore of Seville (c. 600) followed Josephus' identification of Gomer with the Galatians, Gauls and Celts.
According to tractateYoma, in theTalmud, Gomer is identified as "Germamya".[6]
The Muslim historianMuhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounts a Persian tradition that Gomer lived to the age of 1000, noting that this record equalled that ofNimrod, but was unsurpassed by anyone else mentioned in theTorah.[7]
TheCimbri were a tribe settled onJutland peninsula in Germania (now Denmark)c. 200 BC, who were variously identified in ancient times as Cimmerian, Germanic or Celtic. In later times, some scholars connected them with theWelsh 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 antiquarianWilliam Camden in hisBritannia (first published in 1586).[8] In his 1716 bookDrych y Prif Oesoedd,Welsh historianTheophilus 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 byJohann Kaspar Zeuss in 1853, which derivesCymry from theBrythonic word *Combrogos ("fellow countryman").[10][11][12] The name Gomer (as in the pen-name of 19th century editor and authorJoseph Harris, for instance) and its (modern) Welsh derivatives, such asGomeraeg (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 1498Annio da Viterbo published fragments known asPseudo-Berossus, now considered a forgery, claiming that Babylonian records had shown thatComerus Gallus, i.e. Gomer son of Japheth, had first settled in Comera (nowItaly) in the 10th year ofNimrod following the dispersion of peoples. In addition,Tuiscon, whomPseudo-Berossus calls thefourth son of Noah, and says ruled first in Germany/Scythia, was identified by later historians (e.g.Johannes Aventinus) as none other thanAshkenaz, Gomer's son.
Three sons of Gomer are mentioned in Genesis 10, namely:
Children of Ashkenaz were originally identified with theScythians (AssyrianIshkuza), then after the 11th century, with Germany.[15][16]
AncientArmenian andGeorgian chronicles lists Togarmah as the ancestor of both people who originally inhabited the land between twoBlack andCaspian Seas and between two inaccessible mountains,Mount Elbrus andMount Ararat respectively.[17][18]
According toKhazar records, Togarmah is regarded as the ancestor of the Turkic-speaking peoples.[19]