Newsletter: Biblical DNA

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Jesus

The Talpiot Tomb (or Talpiyot Tomb) is a tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighbourhood five kilometers south of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. It contained ten ossuaries, six of them with epigraphs, including one with the inscription that has been interpreted as "Jesus, son of Joseph", though this text is disputed. The tomb also yielded various human remains and several carvings.

A controversial 2007 documentary film produced by Canadian film director James Cameron and investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici titled The Lost Tomb of Jesus and a book written by Jacobovici, together with Charles Pellegrino, The Jesus Family Tomb promote the idea that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth, as well as several other figures from the New Testament. This claim is disputed by many archaeologists and theologians, as well as language and biblical scholars.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA (a tool for tracking matrilineage) performed by Lakehead University on the remains found in the ossuary marked "Jesus son of Joseph" and the one marked "Mariamne," or "Mary" found that the two occupants were not blood relations on their mothers' side. Based on these tests, the makers of the documentary suggest that "Jesus" and "Mariamne" were probably married "because otherwise they would not have been buried together in a family tomb," but the remains were not dated using radiocarbon to further sustain this supposition, neither was any announced DNA testing done on the others ossuaries to see if any familial relation existed there. Additionally, scholars argue the DNA tests only prove that they didn't have the same mother and they could easily have been father/daughter, cousins, half brother/sister, or any number of possibilities that do not include a matrilineage line.

* Shroud of Turin by Wikipedia.org

Luke the Evangelist
(mtDNA haplogroup H)

Luke the Evangelist was an early Christian who is said by tradition to be the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the third and fifth books of the New Testament.

Saint Luke was born of Greek origin in the city of Antioch. In Catholicism, he is the patron saint of physicians and surgeons, and his feast day is October 18.

His earliest notice is in Paul's Epistle to Philemon, verse 24. He is also mentioned in Colossians 4:14 and 2 Timothy 4:11, two works commonly ascribed to Paul.

If we accept that Luke was in fact the author of the Gospel bearing his name and also the Acts of the Apostles, certain details of his personal life can be reasonably assumed. While he does exclude himself from those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry, he repeatedly uses the word "we" in describing the Pauline missions in Acts of the Apostles, indicating that he was personally there at those times. There is similar evidence that Luke resided in Troas, the province which included the ruins of ancient Troy, in that he writes in Acts in the third person about Paul and his travels until they get to Troas, where he switches to the first person plural. The "we" section of Acts continues until the group returns to Troas, where his writing goes back to the third person. This change happens again the second time the group gets to Troas. There are three "we sections" in Acts, all following this rule. Luke never stated, however, that he lived in Troas, and this is the only evidence that he did.

The composition of the writings, as well as the range of vocabulary used, indicate that the author was an educated man. The quote in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians differentiating between Luke and other colleagues "of the circumcision" has caused many to speculate that this indicates Luke was a Gentile. If this were true, it would make Luke the only writer of the New Testament who can clearly be identified as not being Jewish. However, that is not the only possibility. The phrase could just as easily be used to differentiate between those Christians who strictly observed the rituals of Judaism and those who didn't.

A body attributed to Luke the Evangelist that resides in Padua, Italy, underwent a mtDNA test.

* Genetic Tests Shed Light on Biblical Body by Helen Briggs

Aaron

Aaron (אַהֲרֹן), or Aaron the Levite flourished about 1200 BC (traditionaly 1597 BC) was, according to biblical accounts, one of two brothers who play a unique part in the history of the Hebrew people. He was the elder son of Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi. Moses, the other son, being three years younger, Exodus 7:7 and Miriam, their sister, several years older Exodus 2:4; Exodus 6:16 ; Numbers 33:39. Aaron was the great-grandson of Levi Exodus 6:16-20 and represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High priest of the Hebrews.

Recently, the tradition that Kohanim are actually descended from a single patriarch Aaron was found to be apparently consistent with genetic testing. Since all direct male lineage shares a common Y chromosome, testing was done across sectors of the Jewish population to see if there was any commonality between their Y chromosomes. Many of the results were found to cluster rather closely around a particular DNA signature, which the researchers named the Cohen modal haplotype, implying that many of the Kohanim do share a distinctive common ancestry.

* Y-chromosomal Aaron by Wikipedia.org

* Kohen by Wikipedia.org

* YSTR27 Test by EthnoAncestry

Israelites

The Israelites were the dominant cultural and ethnic group living in the southern Levant in Biblical times, composing the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Modern Jews claim descent from the Tribes of Israel.

Patrilineal descent can be documented by analysis of the Y-chromosome, passed from father to son. Of the many variants, or haplogroups, of the Y-chromosome, haplogroups J1 and J2, both originating from the Middle East, are the most common among current Jewish males.

J2 is found in 23% of Ashkenazi Jews and 29% of Sephardi Jews. It is equally common among Muslim Kurds, Central Turks, Georgians, Iraqis and Lebanese. A variant, called the Cohen Modal Haplotype, is present in about 80% of Cohanim, both Sephardi and Ashkenazi.
J1 is found in 19.0% of Ashkenazim and 11.9% of Sephardim. It is more common among Arab populations, especially Arab Bedouins.

This genetic evidence supports a common patrilineal descent for about a quarter of current Jews, regardless of their geographic origin, and confirms the historical and Biblical concept of the People of Israel.

Samaritans

Samaritans, once comparatively large, but now a very small ethnic and religious group (not more than about 700 persons) living in the State of Israel and the West Bank, regard themselves as descendants of the tribes of Ephraim (named by them as Aphrime) and Manasseh (named by them as Manatch). Samaritans adhere to a version of the Torah, known as the Samaritan Pentateuch, which occasionally differs from the Masoretic text, and less so from the Septuagint, sometimes in important ways. Samaritans do not regard the Tanakh as an accurate or truthful history, regard only Moses as a prophet, have their own unique version of Hebrew, and do not regard themselves as part of Judaism. Since 539 BCE, many Jews have rejected outright the claims of the Samaritans to have descent from Ephraim and Manasseh, though some regard them as another sect of Judaism.

Genetic and demographic investigations of the Samaritan community were carried out in the 1960s. Detailed pedigrees of the last 13 generations show that the Samaritans comprise four lineages:

The Tsedakah lineage, claiming descent from the tribe of Manasseh
The Joshua-Marhiv lineage, claiming descent from the tribe of Ephraim
The Danfi lineage, claiming descent from the tribe of Ephraim
The priestly Cohen lineage from the tribe of Levi.

Of the 12 Samaritan males used in the analysis, 10 (83%) belong to haplogroup J, which includes three of the four Samaritan families. The Joshua-Marhiv family belongs to subhaplogroup J1, while the Danfi and Tsedakah families belong to subhaplogroup J2, and can be further distinguished by M67, the derived allele of which has been found in the Danfi family.

Genetic differences between the Samaritans and neighboring Jewish and non-Jewish populations are corroborated in the present study of 7,280 bp of nonrecombining Y-chromosome and 5,622 bp of coding and hypervariable segment (HVS-I) mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences. Comparative sequence analysis was carried out on 12 Samaritan Y-chromosome, and mtDNA samples from 9 male and 7 female Samaritans separated by at least two generations. In addition, 18–20 male individuals were analyzed, each representing Ethiopian, Ashkenazi, Iraqi, Libyan, Moroccan, and Yemenite Jews, as well as Druze and Palestinians, all currently living in Israel. The four Samaritan families clustered to four distinct Y-chromosome haplogroups according to their patrilineal identity. Of the 16 Samaritan mtDNA samples, 14 carry either of two mitochondrial haplotypes that are rare or absent among other worldwide ethnic groups.

Principal components analysis suggests a common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in the paternally-inherited Israelite high priesthood (Cohanim) at the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel.

* Parable of the Good Samaritan

Ancient Egyptians

The race of ancient Egyptians is a subject that has attracted some controversy, especially within Afrocentric circles. The debate over the racial characteristics of the ancient Egyptians usually occurs outside the field of Egyptology today. Studies have shown that modern Egyptians have genetic affinities primarily with populations of North and East Africa, and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern and European populations. Studies done on ancient Egyptians' remains have shown uniformity and homogeneity among the samples, and cranial/limb ratio similarity with populations from North Africa, Somalia, Nubia, Southwest Asia and Europe.Blood typing and DNA sampling on ancient Egyptian mummies is scant; however, blood typing of dynastic mummies found ABO frequencies to be most similar to modern Egyptians and some also to Northern Haratin populations. ABO blood group distribution shows that the Egyptians form a sister group to North African populations, including Berbers, Nubians and Canary Islanders. DNA extraction (namely from the 12th dynasty) indicates multiple lines of descent, including sub-Saharan Africa, while the other lineages were not identified, but may be African in origin as well (according to Keita, 1996). Egyptologists generally consider the ancient Egyptians to have been a continuum from the lighter northern population of Lower Egypt to the darker Upper Egyptians.

Palestinians

Results of a DNA study by geneticist Ariella Oppenheim matched historical accounts that "some Muslim Arabs are descended from Christians and Jews who lived in the southern Levant, a region that includes Israel and the Sinai. They were descendants of a core population that lived in the area since prehistoric times."

In genetic genealogy studies, Palestinians and Negev Bedouins have the highest rates of Haplogroup J1 (Y-DNA) among all populations tested (62.5%). Arab and other Semitic populations usually possess an excess of J1 Y chromosomes compared to other populations harboring Y-haplogroup J. The haplogroup J1, associated with marker M267, originates south of the Levant and was first disseminated from there into Ethiopia and Europe in Neolithic times; a second diffusion of the marker took place in the seventh century CE when Arabs brought it from the Arabia to North Africa. J1 is most common in the southern Levant, as well as Syria, Iraq, Algeria, and Arabia, and drops sharply at the border of non-Arab areas like Turkey and Iran. While it is also found in Jewish populations (<15%), haplogroup J2 (M172) (of eight sub-Haplogroups), is almost twice as common as J1 among Jews (<29%).

Haplogroup J1 (Y-DNA) includes the modal haplotype of the Galilee Arabs (Nebel et al. 2000) and of Moroccan Arabs (Bosch et al. 2001) and the sister Modal Haplotype of the Cohanim, the "Cohan Modale Haplotype", representing the descendents of the priestly caste Aaron. J2 is known to be related to the ancient Greek movements and is found mainly in Europe and the central Mediterranean ( Italy, the Balkans, Greece). According to a 2002 study by Nebel et al., on Genetic evidence for the expansion of Arabian tribes, the highest frequency of Eu10 (i.e. J1) (30%–62.5%) has been observed so far in various Muslim Arab populations in the Middle East. (Semino et al. 2000; Nebel et al. 2001). The most frequent Eu10 microsatellite haplotype in Northwest Africans is identical to a modal haplotype of Muslim Arabs who live in a small area in the north of Israel, the Galilee. (Nebel et al. 2000) termed the modal haplotype of the Galilee (MH Galilee). The term “Arab,” as well as the presence of Arabs in the Syrian desert and the Fertile Crescent, is first seen in the Assyrian sources from the 9th century B.C.E. (Eph'al 1984).

In recent years, many genetic surveys have suggested that, at least paternally, most of the various Jewish ethnic divisions and the Palestinians — and in some cases other Levantines — are genetically closer to each other than the Palestinians or European Jews to non-Jewish Europeans (a Europpean sample from the Welsh. However, Nebel et al. (2001) report that Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks, and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors.

Ten Lost Tribes

The phrase Ten Lost Tribes of Israel refers to the ancient Tribes of Israel that disappeared from the Biblical account after the Kingdom of Israel was totally destroyed, enslaved and exiled by ancient Assyria.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob (who was renamed Israel) had one daughter and twelve sons by four different women. The twelve sons fathered the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Judah, the Tribe of Simeon, and the Tribe of Benjamin joined together to form the Kingdom of Judah and are traditionally considered the ancestors of most of today's Jews. The Tribe of Levi, was assigned hereditary religious duties and did not receive any tribal land. The remaining tribes (Reuben, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim, East Manasseh, and West Manasseh) are considered lost.

Bnei Menashe

The Bnei Menashe ("Children of Menasseh", Hebrew בני מנשה) are a group of more than 8,000 people from India's North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Linguistically, they are Tibeto-Burmans and belong to the Mizo, Kuki and Chin peoples (the terms are virtually interchangeable). They are called Chin in Burma.

The breakaway Judaic group was named Bnei Menashe by Eliyahu Avichail because they believe that the legendary Kuki-Mizo ancestor Manmasi is one and the same with Menasseh, son of Joseph.

2003: Hillel Halkin initiates a collection of 350 genetic samples from Mizo-Kuki which are tested at Haifa's Technion - Israel Institute of Technology under the auspices of Prof. Karl Skorecki. According to the late Mizo research scholar Isaac Hmar Intoate who helped collect the samples, no evidence was found which would indicate a Middle-Eastern origin for Mizo-Chin-Kuki.

2004: DNA test at Kolkota's Central Forensic Science Laboratory then claimed to have discovered evidence of Middle Eastern genes among a sample of Mizo-Kuki-Chin in an internet paper titled Tracking the genetic imprints of lost Jewish tribes among the gene pool of Kuki-Chin-Mizo population of India. The paper remains unreviewed as of February 2007.

1 April 2005: In a Haaretz article In Search of Jewish Chromosomes in India, Professor Skorecki is quoted as saying the Kolkota geneticists "did not do a complete `genetic sequencing' of all the DNA and therefore it is hard to rely on the conclusions derived from a `partial sequencing, and they themselves admit this". He added that "the absence of a genetic match still does not say that the Kuki do not have origins in the Jewish people, as it is possible that after thousands of years it is difficult to identify the traces of the common genetic origin. However, a positive answer can give a significant indication"[www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/04/in_search_of_je.php].

A BBC News article on the same day, entitled Rabbi backs India's lost Jews reports that "the Central Forensic Institute in Calcutta suggests that while the masculine side of the tribes bears no links to Israel, the feminine side suggests a genetic profile with Middle Eastern people that may have arisen through inter-marriage". The same article states that Israeli social scientist Lev Grinberg told the BBC that "right wing Jewish groups wanted such conversions of distant people to boost the population in areas disputed by the Palestinians."

Hillel Halkin: "I contacted two of its authors, V.K. Kashyap and Bhaswar Maity, with a request for additional information that would enable us to evaluate their findings more scientifically. Unfortunately, this information was never given us, nor have Kashyap and Maity taken the next step of publishing their paper in a scientific journal, which would have required it to pass peer review and to display a higher level of scientific argumentation than that of the Internet paper. Why they have behaved this way is a mystery".

July 2006: Hillel Halkin says "laboratory analysis has shown that, with one or two possible exceptions, they fail to demonstrate any link between Kuki-Mizo haplotypes, or DNA profiles, and haplotypes typical of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East such as are common among Jews. In plain language, the study has so far come up with no clear evidence that the Kuki-Mizos, or any part of them, have a biblical “lost tribe” past". He says that in any case, Jewish DNA testing has never been and can never be a requirement in applications for Israeli citizenship. "My conclusions from my research, expounded at length in my book Across The Sabbath River, are that, although the overwhelming majority of Kuki-Mizos are not descended from the “lost tribe” of Manasseh, small numbers of them probably are. It is this small group that has transmitted certain biblical memories, traditions, and customs to the Kuki-Mizo people as a whole.

November 2006: In a Jerusalem Post article about an Indian historian's claims of finding a genetic link between his Northern Indian Pathan clan and the Lost Tribe of Ephraim, Hillel Halkin says that "there's no such thing as Jewish DNA. There is a [genetic] pattern which is very common in the Middle East, and 40% of Jews worldwide have it. But many non-Jews and people in the Middle East have it also"

Beta Israel

The Bete Israel are the Jews of Ethiopia. The now dominant Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims it originated from the visit by the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon in the Tenth Century BCE. This visit is mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (I Kings 10:1). The Bible does not provide details of the queen's visit.

Such details developed as part of Christian Ethiopian tradition in the Middle Ages. Elements included the alleged theft of the Holy Ark, as well as Solomon's getting the Queen of Sheba pregnant. According to Christian Ethiopian tradition, her child established the "Solomonic" lineage in Ethiopia. These elements were first written down in full in the 13th century Kebra Nagast, inspired partly to legitimize the Solomonic dynasty.

Israel's Law of Return (1950) allows Jews and those with Jewish parents or grandparents, and spouses of the aforementioned, to settle in Israel and gain citizenship. Under its provisions, more than 90,000 people, over 85% of the Ethiopian Jewish community, have emigrated to Israel, most notably during Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991). The Israeli government mounted rescue operations for migration when civil war and famine threatened populations within Ethiopia. A trickle of immigration has continued.

Gerard Lucotte and Pierre Smets in Human Biology (vol 71, December 1999, pp. 989 – 993) studied the DNA of 38 unrelated Bete Israel males living in Israel and 104 Ethiopians living in regions located north of Addis Ababa and concluded that "the distinctiveness of the Y-chromosome haplotype distribution of Bete Israel Jews from conventional Jewish populations and their relatively greater similarity in haplotype profile to non-Jewish Ethiopians are consistent with the view that the Bete Israel people descended from ancient inhabitants of Ethiopia who converted to Judaism." This study confirms the findings of an earlier study by Avshalom Zoossmann-Disken, A. Ticher, I. Hakim, Z. Goldwitch, A. Rubinstein, and Batsheva Bonné-Tamir titled "Genetic affinities of Ethiopian Jews," published in Israel Journal of Medical Sciences 27:245 (1991). A study of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes of Jewish and non-Jewish groups titled Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June, 2000 suggested that "paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population," with the exception of the Bete Israel, who were "affiliated more closely with non-Jewish Ethiopians and other North Africans.". These Y-chromosome studies refer to only a partial section of the paternal lineage. Some ethnic groups are a product of one maternal lineage and a different paternal lineage, see Métis people (Canada).

A study of Mitochondrial DNA (which is passed through only maternal lineage to both men and women) showed that the most common mtDNA type found among the Ethiopian Jewish sample was present only in Somalia. This furthered some researchers' idea that most Ethiopian Jews were of local or Ethiopian origin. Both the MtDNA and Y-chromosome analyses, although reliable in tracing two lines of ancestry, could reflect only two partial sections of total genetic inheritance. Studies did not include DNA analysis on Autosomal or X-chromosome variation.

A study by the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University found a possible genetic similarity between 11 Ethiopian Jews and 4 Yemenite Jews who took part in the testing. The differentiation statistic and genetic distances for the 11 Ethiopian Jews and 4 Yemenite Jews tested were quite low, among the smallest of comparisons involving either of these populations. Ethiopian Jewish Y-Chromosomal haplotype are often present in Yemenite and other Jewish populations. Analysis of Y-Chromosomal haplotype frequencies does not indicate a close relationship between Ethiopian Jewish groups.

The 4 Yemenite Jews from this study may be descendants of reverse migrants of African origin who crossed Ethiopia to Yemen. The study result suggests gene flow between Ethiopia and Yemen as a possible explanation for the closeness. The study also suggests that the gene flow between Ethiopian and Yemenite Jewish populations may not have been direct, but instead could have been between Jewish and non-Jewish populations of both regions.[

Lemba People

The Lemba or Lembaa are an ethnic group numbering 70,000 in southern Africa who claim a common descent and belonging to the Jewish people.

Although they are speakers of Bantu languages related to those spoken by their geographic neighbors - which in itself does not discount their claim (see Jewish languages) - they have specific religious practices and beliefs similar to those in Judaism, which have been remembered and transmitted orally through the generations.

According to recent genetic research, the presence among the Lemba of a disproportionate number of men carrying a particular polymorphism on the Y chromosome known as the Cohen modal haplotype, which is strongly correlated to Jewish populations and rare among non-Jews, suggests an ancestral link to the Jewish people. Just under 10% of all Lemba have that particular Y chromosomal type which is associated as a signature of Jewish ancestry, proportions found among general Jewish populations.

One particular sub-clan within the Lemba, the Buba clan, is considered by the Lemba to be their priestly clan, while among Jews, the Kohanim are the priestly clan. From a small sample of the Buba, fifty-two percent of males were found to carry the Cohen modal haplotype, which is generally indicative of Y-DNA haplogroup J. Among Jews the marker is also most prevalent among Jewish Kohanim, or priests. As recounted in Lemba oral tradition, the Buba clan "had a leadership role in bringing the Lemba out of Israel" and into Southern Africa.

More microsatellite markers would need to be tested in order to verify the reality (or not) of any such link. The Lemba also have a large percentage of alleles often found in non-Arabs from the near east.