Rembrandt van Rijn: Sacrifice of Isaac (1635). Image courtesy of Wikipedia. A new study confirms the Bible’s description of the origin of Abraham’s descendants.
Joel Kontinen
According to some wild theories, the Ashkenazi Jews of eastern Europe are not genetically Jews but Eastern Europeans who have converted to Judaism.
A new study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics refutes this view. Harry Ostrer, a geneticist at New York University, and colleagues examined 237 Jews living in different countries.
The researchers noticed that these Jews living in Iran, Iraq, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria and eastern Europe share a "genetic thread".
The Jews are related to the Druze, Bedouins and Palestinians and even Italians.
The research confirms that what the Pentateuch and the other Old Testament writings disclose of the origin of Abraham’s descendants.
The study will probably also bury the view that the British (or Finns or some other non-Jewish nation) are one of the lost tribes of Israel.
Source:
Katsnelson. Alla. 2010. Jews worldwide share genetic ties. Nature News (3 June) http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100603/full/news.2010.277.html
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