Golius, Petrus, brother of J. Golius, was brought up by his maternal uncle, Jan Hemelaar, canon at Antwerp, in the Koman Catholic Church, in which he remained through life. He shared his brother's fond- ness for Oriental studies. After spending several years in Palestine, he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at Rome. He translated Thomas a Kem- pis's work, De Imitatione Chrisfi, into Arabic, and la- bored on an edition of the Bible in the same language. At the age of seventy-four he went to convert the heathen on the coasts of ^lalabar. He died at Surat. See Glasius, GoJgeleerd Xederland, i, 536 ; Baj'le, art. Hemelar. (J. P. W.)
Goniar, Francis, an eminent Calvinistic divine and polemic, was born Jan. 30, 15G3, at Bruges, and educated at Strasburg under John Sturmius, and at Neustadt, where the professors of Heidelberg found a refuge when Louis, the elector palatine, had banished them. In 1582 he came to England, and attended at Oxford the divinity lectures of Dr. Jolin Kainolds, and at Cambridge those of Dr. 'William "Whittakor, and at this latter university he was admitted to the degree of B.D. in 1584. Tiie elector Louis dying in 1583, ]irince Casimir, his brother, restored the professors of Heidelberg, to which place Gomar returned from Cam- bridge, and spent two years there. In 1587 he became ]iastor of the Flemish church at Frankfort, and exer- cised the functions of that office until 1593. In 1594 he was appointed professor of divinity' at Leyden. Here he remained teaching quietly until 1603, when lie became the zealous opponent of his new colleague Arminius. Arminius, as is well known, opposed, and (iomar defended, the peculiarities of Calvin, and in this controversj' Gomar displayed a most violent, vir- ulent, and intolerant spirit, and endeavored by various publications to excite the indignation of the States of Holland against his rival. The combatants disputed before the States in 1608. See Armixius. On one of these occasions Barneveldt, in a short address to them, declared that he thanked God their contentions did not affect the fundamental articles of the Christian religion ; Gomar replied that he '• would not appear before the throne of God with Arminius's errors." On tlie dcatii of Arminius, (iomar, 1609, retired to Middle- burg, whence he was invited by the L^nivcrsity of Saumur to be professor of divinitv, and four years after he exchanged this ofBce for the professorship of divin- ity and Hebrew at Groningen. He attended the Syn- od of Dort in 1618, where he took an active part in the condemnation of the Arminians. See Dor/r. He visited Lej'den in 1633 to revit!e the translation of tlie Old Testament, and died at Groningen Jan. 16, 1641. |
His works were published at Amsterdam in 1645 (fol.) ; also in 1664, Operd omnia theologica (Amsterd. fol.). See Bayle; Hook, Eccles. Biog. v, 332; Mosheim, Cli. Hist. cent, xvii, pt. ii. ch. ii, § 11 ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog, Generale, xxi, 136 ; Herzog, Real-Eiicyklop. v, 231.
Gome. See Bulrush.
Go'mer (Heb. id. ^^5, vanishing, or perh. heat, L e. passion ; Sept. Fausp and Fojusp or Fti/ffo), the name of a man and of a race descended from him, also of a woman.
1. The eldest son of Japheth (B.C. post 2514), son of Noah, and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togar- mah (Gen. x, 2), whose descendants seem to have formed a great branch of the south-eastern population of Europe (Gen. x, 3 ; compare 1 Chron. i, 5). In the Scriptures, however, the people named Gomer (men- tioned along with Togarmah in the armies of Magog, Ezek. xxxviii, G) imply rather an obscure and but vaguely-known nation of the barbarous north (Rosen- miiller, Alterth. I, i, 235 sq.). The Jerusalem Targum renders Gen. x, 3 by "^pi^SX, African; Arab. Ti"!^!^ Turk. Bochart (Phakg, iii, 81) identifies the name, on etymological grounds, with Phrygia (from ^"Cn, to consume, and <ppvyia, from (povyuv,to roast'); Phrj'gia being, according to ancient testimony, a XiiJoa tinKwi- pioroij, and part of it bearing the name of KUTUKiKav- ^iivT], or burnt (Strabo, xiii, 628 ; Diod. iii, 138). But to this it seems a fatal objection that the Phrygians formed only a branch of tlie Togarmians (Josephus, Ant. i, 6, 1 ; Jerome, Qucest. in Gen. x, 3), and there- fore cannot be regarded as the stem whence the To- garmians themselves sprang. The same objection ap- plies to the suggestion that Gomer is the German race (Talm. Yoma, 10 a); for this comes under Ashkenaz, a branch of Gomer. AVahl {^Asitn, i, 274) compares Gamir, the ancient name for Cappadocia, and Kalisch {Comm.. in Gen.) seeks to identify it with the Chomari, a nation in Bactriana, noticed by Ptolemy (vi, 11, § 6), Most of tlie interpreters take Gomer to be the ancestor of the Celta?, and more especially of the Cimmerii, Kipiitpint (Herodotus, i, 6, 15, 103), who were already known in the time of Homer (Odyss. xi, 14). To judge from the ancient historians (Herodotus, Strabo, Plu- tarch, etc.), they had in early times settled to the north of the Black Sea, and gave their name to the Crimea (from the Arab.^riw, by transposition from the Heb.), the ancient Chersonesus Taurica, where they left traces of their presence in the ancient names, Cimmerian Bosporus, Cimmerian Isthmus, Mount Cimmerium, the district Cimmeria, and particularly the Cimmerian walls (Herod, iv, 12, 45, 100 ; yEsch. Prom. Vinct. 729), and in the modern name Crimea. They forsook this abode under the pressure of the Scythian tribes, and during the early part of the 7th century B.C. they poured over the M'estern part of Asia Minor, commit- ting immense devastation, and defying for more than half a centur}' the power of the Lydian kings. They were finally expelled by Alyattes, with tlie exception of a few who settled at Sinope and Antandrus. It was about the same period that Ezekiel noticed them as acting in conjunction with Armenia (Togarmah) and Magog (Scj'thia). Tlie connection between Go- mer and Armenia is supported by the tradition, pre- served by Moses of Chorene (i, 11), that Gamir was the ancestor of the Haichian kings of the latter coun- try. After the expulsion of the Cimmerians from Asia iSIinor their name disappears in its original form ; liut there can be little reasonable doubt that both the name and the people are to be recognised in the Cim- bri of tlie north of Europe, described by the classical writers sometimes as a German, sometimes as a Celtic race. The preponderance of authority is in favor of the latter (Sallust, Jug. 114; Florus, iii, 3; Appian, De Itch. 111. 4 ; Bell. Cimli, i, 29 ; iv, 2 ; Diodor. v, 32 ; xiv, 114 ; Plutarch, Cam. 15 ; Mar. 25, 27 ; Dion. Cass.