Genetic study offers clues to history of North Africa's Jews

Adds another little piece to the puzzle

in.reuters.com...

A new genetic analysis has reconstructed the history of North Africa's Jews, showing that these populations date to biblical-era Israel and are not largely the descendants of natives who converted to Judaism, scientists reported on Monday.

The study also shows that these Jews form two distinct groups, one of which is more closely related than the other to their European counterparts, reflecting historical migrations.

. In many cases the analyses have confirmed what scholars had gleaned from archaeological finds and historical accounts.

Archaeology and DNA evidence combined, hopefully will unlock the truth.

This work demonstrates a shared genetic history among the Jews of North Africa and strengthens the case for a biological basis for Jewishness,"

Jewish populations of North Africa became genetically distinct over time, with those of each country carrying their own DNA signatures.
The analysis showed that all North African Jews are descended from forebears in the Middle East, supporting the hypothesis that biblical-era Israelites among Phoenician traders established colonies along the North African coast.

Common DNA signatures also show that some groups are closer, genetically, to their European co-religionists than expected. That suggests "a shared set of founders,"

EXODUS FROM EGYPT

DNA evidence lends credence to accounts that in 312 BC Egypt's king settled Jews in Cyrenaica, in what is now Tunisia. According to the Jewish historian Josephus (born in AD 37), by the first century AD there were 500,000 Jews there. The DNA that Tunisian Jews share with those of the Middle East supports accounts that, after the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, 30,000 Jews were deported to Carthage, in what is now Tunisia.

Georgian Jews led to one surprise: that they are closely related to those of the Middle East, including those in Iraq and Iran. "That shows there was significant migration of Jewish populations along the Silk Road beginning in the Persian Empire," said Ostrer. "Just a small number of founders started Jewish communities in India, Burma, and Georgia."

From an old topic
Analysis of Jewish genomes refutes the Khazar claim.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Antiquities of the Jews

en.wikipedia.org...

Josephus also writes that Abraham taught science to the Egyptians, who in turn taught the Greeks, and that Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like Rome resisted monarchy.

I tend to favor older historians, maybe Josephus deserves a closer look.

In search of the historical Abraham.
www.aish.com...

There is now new and exciting DNA evidence for common Jewish origin -- not just among Cohanim, the Priestly Class, but among Jews scattered all over the globe.
www.aish.com...

"Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora."
(M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Science, May 9, 2000)

The fascinating story of how DNA studies confirm an ancient biblical tradition.
www.aish.com...

"Cohanim (plural of Cohen) are the priestly family of the Jewish people, members of the Tribe of Levi."

"The discovery of the "Cohen Gene" -- the genetic signature shared by the majority of Kohanim -- the Jewish priestly family worldwide, is an indication that this signature is that of the ancient Hebrews. (See:"The Cohanim - DNA Connection")"

In a second study, Dr. Skorecki and associates gathered more DNA samples and expanded their selection of Y chromosome markers. Solidifying their hypothesis of the Cohens' common ancestor, they found that a particular array of six chromosomal markers was found in 97 of the 106 Cohens tested. This collection of markers has come to be known as the Cohen Modal Hapoltype (CMH) -- the standard genetic signature of the Jewish priestly family. The chances of these findings happening at random is greater than one in 10,000.

The finding of a common set of genetic markers in both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Cohanim worldwide clearly indicates an origin pre-dating the separate development of the two communities around 1000 CE. Date calculation based on the variation of the mutations among Cohanim today yields a time frame of 106 generations from the ancestral founder of the line, some 3,300 years -- the approximate time of the Exodus from Egypt, the lifetime of Aaron HaCohen.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Of course there would be close DNA strands, thats what happens when there's alot of inbreeding for thousands of years. Now why don't they start DNA testing non-Jews against Jews v Middle Easterns. You'll get the same result among many non-Jews who also carry the same DNA strands.

I know quite afew non-Jews who are from the Levite Tribe, are not Jewish and two of them were tested and they showed they shared the exact same DNA strand of the Cohans.

I once heard from a well educated person that the Biblical Abraham is none other than Hammurabi. The code of Hammurabi was actually an embryonic form of the Torah.

reply to post by dashen


Do you mean Habiru?

THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS

By Flavius Josephus

en.wikipedia.org...
www.gutenberg.org...
www.gutenberg.org...

Originally posted by dashen
I once heard from a well educated person that the Biblical Abraham is none other than Hammurabi. The code of Hammurabi was actually an embryonic form of the Torah.

I heard that too, but I wonder how this DNA evidence could make that false?

Evidence of the Exodus from Egypt

One of the most important discoveries that relate to the time of the Exodus is the Merneptah stele which dates to about 1210 BC. Merneptah, the king of Egypt, boasts that he has destroyed his enemies in Canaan. He states: Plundered is the Canaan with every evil; Carried off is Ashkelon; seized upon is Gezer; Yanoam is made as that which does not exist; Israel is laid waste, his seed is not; (ANET 1969, 378).The word "Israel" here is written in Egyptian with the determinative for people rather than land (ANET 1969, 378 note 18). This implies that Israel did not have a king or kingdom at this time. This would be the time of the judges. The text also implies that Israel was as strong as the other cities mentioned, and not just a small tribe. The south to north order of the three city-states may provide a general location for Israel. There is an interesting place named in Joshua 15:9 and 18:15, "well of waters of Nephtoah," that may be the Hebrew name of Merneptah.

Inscription of Khu-Sebek, Called Djaa

The Story of Sinuhe

The Hyksos

The story of Sinuhe also gives us a background picture about Syria-Palestine life in the Middle Bronze Age which is most likely the patriarchal period. Sinuhe flees Egypt on hearing of the death of King Amenemhet I (1960 BC) and becomes an exile like Moses.

The Hyksos

Store Cities of Pithom and Rameses

Jacob-El

According to the Turin king list there were six Hyksos kings who ruled for 108 years. One important ruler was named "Y'qbhr" or "Jacob-hr" (Albright 1934, 11). There have been several different translations of this name. Early scholars purposed the meaning of "Jacob-El" as "Jacob is my god", but Albright observed that the name is a name-pattern verb plus theophorous element (1935, 191, n.59; Ward 1976, 358). In Phoenician and Akkadian hr means "mountain". Ward states:Here hr, 'mountain,' appears as a synonym for 'ilu, 'god, much as Hebrew sur, 'rock,' and similar words were used, e.g., Suri-'el, 'El is my rock.' I would thus render Y'qb-hr as '(My) mountain (i.e. god) protects,' which would be identical in meaning to Yahqub-'il (1976, 359).Hr meaning "mountain" or "rock" is identical to the word El or "god". In the Old Testament Zobel proposes:The name (Jacob) is a hyocoristic form of what was originally a theophorous name belonging to the class of statement-names made up of a divine name and the imperfect of a verb. Its full form, not found in the OT, was 'Jacob-El'(1990, 188-9; Shanks 1988, 24-25).

Expulsion of the Hyksos

reply to post by bluemirage5


Maybe they have tested them, you should start a topic.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


There are more non-Jews carrying DNA to the Semetic tribes than there are Jews, only because so many Israelites who were exiled in ancient times got "lost in the woods". Of course, the Jews won't admit that because in all honesty they do NOT carry unique DNA of a tribe, only a geographic area.

Most Israelis (those not from Cohan/Levites) claim they are from the Tribe of Judah. Can they prove it? No they can't unless they have DNA taken from the corpse of Judah. Same goes for the Cohans & Levites, do they have Mose's DNA to compare with?

DNA links prove Jews are a ‘race,' says genetics expert
Conjuring fear of Nazism and anti-Semitism, Jews recoil from the thought that Judaism might be a race, but medical geneticist Harry Ostrer insists the 'biological basis of Jewishness' cannot be ignored.

Jews exhibit, a distinctive genetic signature, so are they a race?
www.haaretz.com...

A ‘people’

The concept of the “Jewish people” remains controversial. The Law of Return, which establishes the right of Jews to come to Israel, is a central tenet of Zionism and a founding legal principle of the State of Israel. The DNA that tightly links Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi, three prominent culturally and geographically distinct Jewish groups, could be used to support Zionist territorial claims — except, as Ostrer points out, some of the same markers can be found in Palestinians, our distant genetic cousins, as well. Palestinians, understandably, want their own right of return.

Ostrer has devoted his career to investigating these extended family trees, which help explain the genetic basis of common and rare disorders. Today, Jews remain identifiable in large measure by the 40 or so diseases we disproportionately carry, the inescapable consequence of inbreeding. He traces the fascinating history of numerous “Jewish diseases,” such as Tay-Sachs, Gaucher, Niemann-Pick, Mucolipidosis IV, as well as breast and ovarian cancer. Indeed, 10 years ago I was diagnosed as carrying one of the three genetic mutations for breast and ovarian cancer that mark my family and me as indelibly Jewish, prompting me to write “Abraham’s Children.”

Like East Asians, the Amish, Icelanders, Aboriginals, the Basque people, African tribes and other groups, Jews have remained isolated for centuries because of geography, religion or cultural practices.

It’s stamped on our DNA.

reply to post by bluemirage5


Being a Cohen or your tribe is received from the father. Being one of the children of Israel comes from ones mother. A Cohen male having a a child with a gentile woman would render the resulting child to be not Jewish. The child would then be able to convert if he or she chose to down the line

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Jews, like many Arab families, were isolated because of all the inbreeding going on amongst them. Of course many will share some DNA strands but they have to have something to compare their DNA with, do they have DNA of Jacob, Judah and Moses?

Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by dashen

 

Do you mean Habiru?

No. Habiru was likely not the Hebrews. In Hebrew the word for "Hebrew" is "Ivri". Also, despite what you've read Egyptologists get pretty generous with some of their translations

reply to post by dashen


Actually, the Cohans and Levites runs only through the patrilineal side

The Who is a Jew is an argument the Orthodox Jews likes to run with for religious reasons. Fact is, a Jew can share the same DNA strands as a non-Jew who also decended from the Israelite tribes. And there's many Palestinians who are also from the original Israelite clans. A Mizrachi and a Palestinian (depending on which Arab tribe they hail from) have more in common than an Ashkenazi once you put DNA strands under a microscope.

How much money was spent on this study so that we could have another attempt at legitimizing further divisions among the only race that there is: the human race?

Were the Jewish faith more favorable of intermingling with other cultures, this would not seem to off putting.

reply to post by bluemirage5


Thats what I said. See above

Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

Jews, like many Arab families, were isolated because of all the inbreeding going on amongst them. Of course many will share some DNA strands but they have to have something to compare their DNA with, do they have DNA of Jacob, Judah and Moses?

Good question, look into a genome study on other groups and let's see what they have.

Statistically, however, it has been determined that the most likely haplogroup for a cohen who is really a descendant of Aaron the Priest is J1[with a refinement of J1c3, also called J-P58], this haplogroup definitely having its roots in the Middle East. Since Moses was the younger brother of Aaron and the Bible does not say they had different fathers, the following is his predicted 12 marker DNA, matching that of the modern J1 Cohens who were tested by Family Tree DNA:

King Tut Mysteries Solved: Was Disabled, Malarial, and Inbred
news.nationalgeographic.com...

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
How much money was spent on this study so that we could have another attempt at legitimizing further divisions among the only race that there is: the human race?

Were the Jewish faith more favorable of intermingling with other cultures, this would not seem to off putting.

You are missing the point, where you see division, I see finding answers to an age old question, are we all related?