Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>]

Using the ProQuest Academic Search program, type in the words "Y Chromosome"
and define the years you want. You'll get scores of articles just for the
past year alone.
Then choose the ones you think might be scholarly (i.e., not newspaper
reports!)
Sincerely,
Jonathan D. Safren
Chairman
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Israel


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Oren" <soren AT enteract.com>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 6:13 AM
Subject: Re: Y-Chromosome Studies and the Jews


> Since strange things happen to scholarly findings when they get into the
popular press, could we ask for citations to the scholarly sources of these
claims?
>
>
Steve Oren
>
Chicago, IL
>
>
> ----------
> > A year ago, I presented on the ANE list the results of a Y-chromosome
study
> > conducted on Jews of various origins as published in the press. The
study
> > showed that Jews of all communities, except for Ethiopian Jews, were
more
> > closely related to each other than to the non-Jewish populations of the
host
> > communities. Moreover, Jews taken together as a whole were shown to be
most
> > closely related genetically to Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese.
> > I then asked the following questions:
> > 1) What is the importance of these findings for the history of the
People of
> > Israel and the accuracy of Biblical traditions?
> > 2) Is it now possible to write a genetic history of the peoples of the
Ancient
> > Near East?
> > For this, I was roundly attacked amd called a racist, even a Nazi.
> > Only one of all the letters I received related specifically to my
questions.
> >
> > Today, on the "anniversary" of that auspicious event, I did a web search
on
> > ProQuest on what had been written on the matter of Y chromosomes. I was
> > astounded by the vast number of research and other scientific articles
that
> > had appeared in the past year on the subject of Y
> > chromosomes and their importance in traciong the genetic history of homo
> > sapiens, of whatever ethnic origins, in various continents of the world.
> >
> > It is no longer possible for biblical and Ancient Near Eastern scholars
to
> > ignore the flood of information now beginning to pour in on genetic
history. I
> > realize that some of this is going to hurt the pet theories of some
important
> > scholars, theories that have made their careers. But that's the way the
cookie
> > crumbles. Darwin's "Origin of the Spedcies" hurt a lot of Creationists.
> >
> > For starters, for all you non-biology majors, I refer you to:
> >
> > Hillel Halkin, "Wandering Jews -- and their Genes", Commentary 110
(Sept.
> > 2000), 54-61.
> >
> > This article is couched in language that any educated layman can
understand -
> > though he may not like its conclusions.
> > Sincerely,
> > Jonathan D. Safren
> > Chairman
> > Dept. of Biblical Studies
> > Beit Berl College
> > 44905 Israel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> > You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: [soren AT enteract.com]
> > To unsubscribe, forward this message to
> > $subst('Email.Unsub')
> > To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.
> >
>
>
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: [yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il]
> To unsubscribe, forward this message to
$subst('Email.Unsub')
> To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.
>
>