Abraham's Chromosomes?

AISH ^ | Sept. 2004 | Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman

[sneakers]

Very interesting!

Thanks!

[twigs]

You're right; I had forgotten about Keturah. IIRC, the Medianites who bought Joseph were distant cousins.

[Just mythoughts]

"Isolated populations, iow close relatives, is exactly what produces ethnic groups or "races"."


Please explain. That "gene" specific to different races had to be there to begin with, unless what you point to is evolution, which would be contrary to what is written.

[twigs]

I'm not qualified to answer this, but I'll give it a go. As you note, Abraham as certainly the father of the Arab people. Though Islam is a body of religious beliefs, one of the things that made Mohammed's sayings spread like wildfire was that they came from a brother Arab. The Arab tribes were losing their culture and traditions at the time and their world was becoming increasingly violent (I know, I know). Many of them were familiar with Christianity and Jewish, as was Mohammed, but they were looked at as foreign religions. So what Mohammed heard from God sounds at times a lot like elements from both of those religions. But what made it so popular is that it was perceived as indigenous. So, Abraham, father of the Arabs, would have also been seen as father of their religion. Plus, legend quickly included him with the Kaaba.

[nmh]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[Zionist Conspirator]

It's good that 'Aish is publicizing this and other related issues, but what many Orthodox (especially "Modern Orthodox") fail to take into consideration is how this is undercut by their constant public attacks on Fundamentalist and orthodox chr*stians and their endorsement of liberal, heterodox chr*stians (ie, Pope John XXIII and the post-Vatican II church, John Shelby Spong, the National Council of Churches, etc.). This support is because of their "tolerance" and opposition to chr*stian proselytization among Jews (not out of respect for the claims of the Torah, but because they reject the very concept of "true" and "false" religion), but the very same people whose anti-missionism Jews revere are the very ones who reject the "old testament" as backward, bloodthirsty, genocidal, and a hodgepodge of pagan myths stitched together in the early post-exilic era by scribes and priests. The constant harping on Mel Gibson to convert to the Vatican II church were most disturbing, however anti-Semitic he might be.

The world still sees "Biblical literalism" and rejection of the demythologization of the Bible as a purely hillbilly phenomenon, and the Fundamentalism of Orthodox Judaism is invisible beneath the Jewish community's cloak of historic oppression by chr*stians. Articles like this are a beginning of correcting this misunderstanding, but it is only a beginning. Jews (not Fundamentalist Protestants or anyone else) have the obligation to defend HaShem and the Torah from the skeptics and blasphemers.

Of course, Orthodox Jews are far from alone in this silence. Non-Orthodox Jews (including some "traditional" Sefaradim and "Modern Orthdox" 'Ashkenazim), Roman Catholics, and non-Fundamentalist Protestants are fanatical promoters of "the Bible as mythology," while more mysterious groups like Eastern and Oriental chr*stians apparently live in some other dimension and refuse to make their position on the issue known (shame on them!).

This is one ma`aseh tov, but we need more.

[Twinkie]

Nope. God does not lie. What we "see" in the material world is not all there is.

[SunkenCiv]

Any two humans without genetic disorders (IOW, those with 23 chromosome pairs) who are fertile and of opposite genders can produce offspring, so there's only one race, the human race. When populations are isolated, traits which stand out (one of the classic studie being "hitchhiker's thumb" among the Pennsylvania "Dutch") probably originated in a single mutation, or wound up very common despite its recessive nature, because by chance the original carrier is the forebear of everyone in the population.

[msdrby]

ping

[IncredibleHulk]

"He is the acknowledged father of monotheism, "

Is the author trying to say that Abraham invented God?

The Sumerians and their immediate descendants worshiped the Annanuki (Gods) and the God of the Gods was Anu. The Hebrew Elohim is a dual gender plural word that is best translated as Gods. To refer to the God of the Gods, you would say El Elohim. This is the God of Abraham. Abraham's monotheism is just the beginning of "Thou shalt have no other God before me." The people had forgotten who the Creator and Father of us All was and had to be reminded.

[SunkenCiv]

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