Genetic testing raises an age-old question — are the Jews a people, or a religion?

NY Post ^ | June 13, 2010 | MAYRAV SAAR

[Scanian]

Two new genome studies of Jews worldwide prove that the Jewish people — long called the “People of the Book,” the “Chosen People” or, in unkind circles, “those people” — are, indeed, a people after all.

The first study, by researchers at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, found that Jews across the globe share distinct genetic traits that are different from other groups and that trace back to the ancient Middle East.

Researchers say the study, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, puts to rest age-old questions about whether Jews are a group of unrelated people who share a religious ideology or a distinct ethnicity with common ancestry.

“The debate is over,” said Dr. Edward R. Burns, one of the lead authors of the study. “The Jewish people are one people with a common genetic thread that evolved in the second or third century BC.”

[Scanian]

Helen Thomas and her muzzie friends can cram it -- the Jews and Israel have every historical reason to be in the Middle East.

[Dem Guard]

“The Jewish people are one people with a common genetic thread that evolved in the second or third century BC.”

I thought it was well before this date.

[mdmathis6]

If they widened their genetic net, I’ll bet they’d find even “lost tribes” people from certain people groups.

I strongly suspect that some people groups that hate Jews will someday be surprised to learn that they are Jews...(not counting American Liberal Dem, Jews who seem to be self hating)

[Revolting cat!]

No.

[Dem Guard]

Interesting point, I wonder how exclusive these genetic factors really were relative to the whole population.

[billorites]

No good can come from stuff like this.

[antisocial]

““The debate is over,” said Dr. Edward R. Burns,”

That always makes me skeptical when they start off with the above statement. Kind of reminds me of Algore.

[Rocky]

“The Jewish people are one people with a common genetic thread that evolved in the second or third century BC.”

King David and Solomon lived around 1000 B.C. I suppose they were just myths according to these bozos?

And Abraham, around 1800 or 1900 B.C. Another myth?

[Prospero]

“The Jewish people are one people with a common genetic thread that evolved in the second or third century BC.”

I thought it was well before this date.

In this case it's the genetic marker that dates back to the 2nd or 3rd Century B.C. (I'm guessing mitochondrial DNA, indicating a common mother. It's only one genetic marker, and most likely not the only one, and there could have been millions of women with that same trait - it's as far back as these particular wizards can spot, using this single marker.)

A very interesting moment in the history of the Judah-Benjamin line, right around the return from Babylonian exile and the hegemony of the descendants of Alexander's general Antiochus, specifically prior to Antiochus IV Epiphanes and after Nehemiah - not to put too fine a point on it.

[ChiMark]

Nice to see science concurs with the Bible.

[blu]

Since the participants had to have 4 Jewish grandparents, I’d say that was a pretty exclusive group. I just wish they’d thrown in some other people, say, Arabs, to see how they matched (or didn’t). It does, however, answer a big question. Race AND Religion....sweet! Lucky Jews!

[Dem Guard]

By these results alone this would seem to be a flawed study.

[Cvengr]

The headline might better read, “Baal worship confirms God’s favorite people are one”.

There are plenty of Hebrews who were not believers throughout Scripture. Nevertheless, God made contracts with the nation Israel, which he has never made with any other nation on Earth.

The significance of Israel as a nation is not merely genetic, but is also spiritual.

[P.O.E.]

Are the Jews a people, or a religion?

Best of both worlds

[ROCKLOBSTER]

The first study, by researchers at...(bla bla bla)...Albert Einstein...(bla bla bla)...found that Jews across the globe share distinct genetic traits that are different from other groups and that trace back to the ancient Middle East.

So, you're saying that if one converts to Judaism, it changes their genetic make up?

Hmmmmm.....

It's crap.

[donmeaker]

King David was a Philistinian General...

[Scanian]

Of course not, but the convert would be brought into the fold with people who share certain genetic traits and, assuming he marries within the group, his children and/or grandchildren (if they marry Jews) will reflect the genetic connection.

[nolongerademocrat]

There were so many forced conversions you will find “Jewish DNA” scattered throughout the world.

Interesting - although I keep stressing to people (especially Christians), if you believe in Jesus and you believe that Jesus was from the line of David - you are forced to accept that conversion to Judaism happens. Why? Because King David was a descendent of a Convert.

I don’t understand why that is so hard for people to accept. All of the Matriarchs were Converts. The means for conversion are in the Torah. Many people who met Abraham converted. It is really not that complicated.

I’ll even pretend that I don’t know why the “bloodline” is so important to SOME Christians.... I’ll even pretend that slaughter of the Jews is not part of Christian end-time prophecy...

For us, it is the Kohanim - the priests - descendents of Aaron, who MUST have a pure bloodline.

It is all very silly to me. Do you think for one second that the G-d who created the whole world could not transform a person’s DNA at the moment of conversion? Do you think that G-d did not forsee such accusations? Do you think that G-d did not plan for just such a time as this? That is why we ALL stood together at Sinai. (Gilgul Neshamot)

Ahhhhh well. I guess there will be a new set of books about the Illuminati that will have to find a way to deal with this new data...

I’ll share with you a secret, the “Illuminati” is named in the Tehilim. lol

[idov]

Who is a Jew? is basically a question of self-identity. If the mother is Jewish regardless of race, color or creed, the kids are Jewish unless they have formally been opted out by themselves or their parents into another religion. Even then there are cases coming out of South America where directly descended females whose ancestresses were forcibly converted in Inquisition times have no problem being accepted back into the fold.

The Karaites are an interesting case. At one point 1,000 years ago they comprised 40 per cent of the Jewish people after a bitter schism. There are pockets of them still around. The Nazis didn’t know what to do with them. Some groups of them were treated as Jews and some weren’t. You can’t blame them under those circumstances for saying they weren’t Jews but their DNA was no different from mainstream Jews.

[aruanan]

Helen Thomas and her muzzie friends can cram it -- the Jews and Israel have every historical reason to be in the Middle East. --Scanian

No. --Revolting cat!

Yeah, actually, they do. If for no other reason than that of prior (and continuous) residence (which is the central claim made by Muslim Arabs for their presence throughout the Middle East), Jews in the Middle East have a greater claim to virtually all that land than do the later Muslim invaders, even a good claim on large parts of Arabian Peninsula. They antedate the presence of Arabs, certainly Muslim Arabs, in almost every country. Besides, earlier genetic studies have identified ancestry with certain groups that lived in Mesopotamia (much longer ago than 300 BC). The same studies failed to identify such a relationship for the Middle Eastern Arabs (as would have been the case had they had a common ancestor with the Jews in Abraham)

When the Bedouins were still running around in the desert and selling themselves as mercenaries to both Rome and Persia for the Roman/Persian wars, the first permanent cities in the Arabian Peninsula were built by Christian and Jewish kingdoms that had been there since at least the first century AD.

Islam plus the Bedouin mercenaries, having nothing to do after a wave of Black Death hurt both Rome and Persia and ended their mercenary business, resulted in what amounted to an opportunistic disease sweeping across the Middle East, attacking weakened nations, instituting an environmental disaster that the region is still suffering from to the present day (except where it began to be reversed in the late 19th century in what would become modern day Israel), and targeting Christians and Jews for their earlier rejection of Mohammed's syncretism of a few Bedouin religious elements with major chunks of Christianity and Judaism.