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  • From: MarianneLuban AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: Hebrew and Welsh?
  • Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 00:33:28 EST

In a message dated 11/16/2004 5:45:27 PM Pacific Standard Time,
krooger AT debian.org writes:


> The Kohanim and Samaritans intermarried with alien peoples to such a
> degree that comparing their DNA and blood types with that of the
> Israelites wouldn't be very informative.

Below is a recent study, for those who may be interested, with impressions of
the paper by someone else and myself:

Peidong Shen, Tal Lavi, Toomas Kivisild, Vivian Chou, Deniz Sengun, Dov
Gefel, Isaac Shpirer, Eilon Woolf, Jossi Hillel, Marcus W. Feldman, and Peter
J.
Oefner. "Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of Samaritans and
Other Israeli Populations from Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence
Variation." Human Mutation 24 (2004): 248-260. Excerpts:

> "Based on the close relationship of the Samaritan haplogroup J
> six-microsatellite haplotypes with the Cohen modal haplotype, we speculate
> that the
> Samaritan M304 Y-chromosome lineages present a subgroup of the original
> Jewish
> Cohanim priesthood that did not go into exile when the Assyrians conquered
> the
> northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC, but married Assyrian and female
> exiles
> relocated from other conquered lands, which was a typical Assyrian policy
> to
> obliterate national identities. This is in line with biblical texts that
> emphasize a common heritage of Jews and Samaritans, but also record the
> negative
> attitude of Jews towards the Samaritans because of their association with
> people that were not Jewish. Such a scenario could explain why Samaritan
> Y-chromosome lineages cluster tightly with Jewish Y-lineages (Fig. 2A),
> while their
> mitochrondrial lineages are closest to Iraqi Jewish and Palestinian mtDNA
> sequences (Fig. 2B)."

12 Samaritan males were sampled for their DNA. These came from four
families, the Joshua-Marhiv (haplotype J subgroup J1) and the Danfi and
Tsedaka
(haplotype J subgroup J2). For another reason, these families are very
closely
related. The Cohen family is another. They are different and are not even
characterized by the Haplotype J. Now the Haplotype J is common among Jews
but not
restricted to them. It is found in other eastern populations, too, and
probably originated in the Fertile Crescent about 15,000 years ago. Not even
the
Cohen modal haplotype is restricted to Jews completely, even though it was
discovered that most men whose last name is Cohen today carry this haplotype
and
that is how it got its name. It means that the Cohanim of today and
yesterday
probably all came from a single family. Of the four Samaritan families
tested, all the men carried the Cohen modal haplotype--except, ironically,
the Cohen
family men. Of course, it is supposed to be that the priestly family died
out among the Samaritans and that the Levites then took over the priestly
office. But, according to DNA, this is not true. All of the 12 Samaritan
men
sampled come of the priestly line--except the Cohen family males. This
family can
be traced to a single individual who entered the Samaritan community 250
years
ago. Instead of haplotype J, which was common to all the other Samaritan
males tested, the Cohen family males have E3b3, a haplotype group found in
Ashkenazi, Lybian and Yemenite Jews--and Palestinians. Maybe a couple of
other
populations, too, but the article did not have anything to say about them.
There
is one mutation in the Danfi family which is the Kurdish haplotype and is is
closely related to the Cohen Modal haplotype. On the mtDNA side, the side
that comes from the mother, it is noticed some variation in foreign women who
entered the community, but not varying very much so that the communities from
which the women came were not very widespread. Just four different
populations.







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