Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

Thank you, Marianne, for this fascinating study. See some more points below.

On 17/11/2004 05:33, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

> ...  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...

This doesn't follow. If the original priestly family were descendants of 
Aaron, they were closely related in the male line to the remaining 
Levites, for (according to the Hebrew Bible) they had a common ancestor 
in Levi only a few generations before Aaron - and only one generation 
earlier with all true Israelites. So it makes sense that the Samaritan 
Levites share a common Y chromosome type with the Jewish Cohens, 
presumed to be descendants of Aaron - and with a good proportion of 
modern Jews, presumably excluding descendants of later proselytes, 
Jewish women who took Gentile husbands etc.

One implication of this seems to be that the modern Samaritans, except 
for the recently added Cohen family, seem to be descended, at least in 
the male line, not from the Assyrian settlers of 2 Kings 17:24 but from 
Levites who moved among them at some time. This evidence should imply 
that the Samaritans can at last be accepted as true Jews and the 2500 
years of enmity can be ended.

Interesting also that the Kurds have a similar Y chromosome type. This 
might well suggest descent from the "lost" northern tribes, who are 
known to have been exiled to areas close to modern Kurdistan. And it 
might suggest that the Samaritan Danfi family are in fact not true 
Levites but survivors from one of the northern tribes. But do any of the 
Welsh have this same Y chromosome?


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/