Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 17/11/2004 20:39, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

> ...  From their 
> photos, the HPs from this family were the most magnificent men, all tall and looking 
> like absolute Biblical patriarchs.  But were they really Samaritans at all?
> That is the question, now posed by the DNA.  Did things arrive at such a pass 
> in the 18th Century that a Jew !!!! had to come into the Samaritan fold and 
> assume some importance? ...

Surely, in the 18th century, more likely a local Arab, as he had a 
haplotype common among local Arabs. Or perhaps it was simply that a 
Samaritan woman had a liaison with an Arab man but pretended the baby 
was her husband's.

Presumably the modern Samaritans make no claim that their Cohen family 
is descended from Aaron or Phinehas as they hold that that line died 
out. Actually the Samaritans' own claim, according to 
http://www.the-samaritans.com/info.htm, is "in the 14th century CE, the 
last priest of the lineage of Phinehas, Solomon Ben Phinehas, was died, 
without children". From the same page: "The leader of the community is 
the High  priest. He is also the head of the priestly clan. The other  
three clans are from the house of Joseph, Tsedaka ,from the tribe of 
Menashe, Danfi and Marchiv from the tribe of Ephraim." So presumably the 
claim is that the priestly clan is from the tribe of Levi but not 
descended from Aaron.

There is a priestly family tree dating back to 1626 at 
http://www.the-samaritans.com/html_articles/Brieftheoritical.htm.

In any case, as Yigal pointed out, religion is not about genetics.


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