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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Re: Hebrew and Welsh?

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: MarianneLuban AT aol.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: Hebrew and Welsh?
  • Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:37:19 +0000

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/






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