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| Our troops give so much of themselves, and we all benefit from their efforts. The next time you look at your bank balance, why not find some way to take some money and put it towards supporting the members of our armed services in some way? Maybe find a family who has someone serving, and buy them dinner, or some groceries, or a gift for their children? Maybe find a way to contribute to a fund for the memory of any of those who have fallen? Our armed forces deserve our support in tangible ways.
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A newspaper report from Jerusalem dated January 3, 1997 indicates that scientists have found a unique genetic chromosome linking Jews of the priestly tribe (Kohanim) worldwide. The researchers found these Jewish Kohanim, whether from the Ashkenazi (European) or the Sephardi (Spanish and Middle Eastern) branches share a variation of the Y chromosome. This is a very strong evidence that these individuals are descendants of one man, Aaron the High Priest, who lived 3,500 years ago. Prof. Karl Skorecki, a senior nephrologist (blood specialist) at Rambam Hospital in Haifa is the head of molecular medicine at Israel's Technion's medical school. He and his colleagues published their findings in Nature, a British science journal.
The scientists obtained genetic samples from the inside of the cheeks of unrelated Jewish men who lived in three nations. They asked if they were Kohanim, related to the priestly tribe. The genetic phenotypes of 188 Jews who believed they were descended from the Kohanim were different genetically from those Jews in the sample who were not kohanim. The researchers found a preponderance of the YAP, DYS19B haplotype in the priestly kohanim This Y chromosome is carried only by men and is passed down father to son patrilineally. Mitichondrial DNA, on the other hand, is transmitted by the mother's X chromosomes. Professor Skorecki explained that it was impressive how the characteristic Y chromosome was passed down the generations despite centuries of assimilation over the last two thousand years. Professor Skorecki did not choose kohanim based on their names (Cohen, Rappaport, or Shapiro, etc.). Rather, they asked if their family tradition claimed they were kohanim.
The professor is himself a kohen. He noticed another kohen in a synagogue and wondered if they could be genetically linked since the Bible claimed they were all descended from Aaron. "I wanted to know if it were possible to find a genetic connection." It is estimated that approximately 5 percent (350,000 men) of the 7 million male Jews worldwide are descended from the priestly tribe. The priests led Israel in its worship in the Temple and Tabernacle from the time of Aaron. God commanded that they would not be given a tribal territory like the other tribes. Instead the Levites would receive tithes from the sacrifices in the Temple. Since the Roman army burned the Temple in A.D. 70 the kohanim priesthood required its members to keep ritually pure by not touching a corpse or marrying a divorcee.
Dr. Skorecki and his fellow researchers discovered a preponderance of the YAP, DYS19B haplotype in the priestly kohanim but they did not find this in Jews that were not descended from the kohanim. This genetic evidence was found in kohanim from both the Ashkenazi (European) and the Sephardi (Spanish and Middle Eastern) branches of the worldwide Jewish population. This is a strong proof that the Aaronic priesthood existed in the distant past as the Bible relates. This provides fascinating evidence that the Jewish priesthood predated the division of the Jewish people into the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi branches, these two major ethnic groups, which occurred approximately a 1,000 years ago during the Middle Ages.
Go back to the Main Page ( The Y Files ) Surprisingly? God might as well have put it up in neon lights:
GEN 21:14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.Ishmael literally means, "God hears."GEN 21:15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
GEN 21:16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
GEN 21:17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
GEN 21:18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
These agenda driven "scientific gene studies" pop up every several years. Their single unifying characteristic is the lack of science (some insist outright fraud) which permeates them, and the zeal of their sponsors.
The quote above shows the authors inherent bias. Everyone know that Jews did not descent from the Ten (Lost) Tribes of Israel. The rest of the article is also breathless fiction.
Very interesting.
"..A Syrian and ready to perish was my father,..." (De 26:5)
