Written for a Generation to Come - History of the World in the Molecules of Life.pdf

Written for a Generation to Come - History of the World in the Molecules of Life, 2006

Summary:

The discovery of DNA as the blueprint of life in the 1950s was the starting block of a race to understand the molecular basis of life. One of the more intriguing findings to follow was that specific pieces of DNA can be used to study human history. Genetic anthropologists are now busy decoding that history, written in the molecules of life since the beginning of time. It is a record being deciphered only in our generation, and one which confirms the history of man recorded in Scripture in amazing detail.

Genetic anthropology is conducted using the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA, two segments that have unique properties that facilitate studies of multigenerational inheritance. Y-chromosome DNA is passed only from father to son; similarly, mitochondrial DNA is passed only from the mother to her offspring. In addition, both accumulate changes at a predictable rate, producing genetic “bread crumbs” that make it possible to follow these bread crumbs (markers) as a population moved around the globe.

Intriguingly, in light of current scientific knowledge, the Bible seems to mention DNA itself: “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16), as well as its recent potential to record both the time and the places where people lived: God “has made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined ordained times and the boundaries of their dwelling” (Acts 17:26).

Current understanding of genetic processes confirm Biblical accounts throughout Genesis 6:3. Post-flood reduction in life spans match those predicted by a mathematic model, bringing current human life spans (under ideal conditions) to precisely the limit predicted by God in Genesis, as well as the exact average specified in Psalm 90:9-10. In addition, Job’s assertion that “man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed” (Job 14:5 ) has also been recently confirmed. Human life spans have been demonstrated to be both pre-determined and programmed into the DNA itself, through a mechanism involving a repetitive DNA sequence at the end of each chromosome called a telomere. Part of the telomere is shaved off with every cell division; its complete removal initiates cell suicide.

The field of genetic anthropology, which allowed man’s history to be studied with DNA, first gained public awareness in 1987 with the announcement that mitochondrial DNA analysis had demonstrated that every human being on the planet descended from the same female. Similar analysis of Y-chromosomes found that every human male was also descended from a single individual human male. Scientists involved (gleefully) proclaimed that, since this identified male lived considerably after the female, the Bible had been officially repudiated, with headlines across the globe declaring “Adam and Eve Never Met!”

The scientists may need to review their Sunday School lessons. What “mitochondrial Eve” and “Y-chromosome Adam” really represent are really statistical entities called the Most Recent Common Ancestor, or MRCA, meaning the last shared relative. As such, they exquisitely confirm the Biblical account. Since the males on the ark were Noah and his sons, all should have had identical Y-chromosomes. The four women, however (Mrs. Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth), ostensibly not related, would therefore trace their maternal lineages back to the Biblical Eve. The MRCA of the men, then, was Noah, but the MRCA of the maternal lineage was NOT Mrs. Noah, but Eve—who did (according to both science and the Bible) live considerably before her statistical counterpart, Noah.

Genetics has confirmed the Bible’s (long discredited) claim that Noah’s family populated the entire world, putting to rest the widespread theory that humans evolved simultaneously in several places. Analysis of Y- and mitochondrial chromosomes also confirm after Noah, the population grew, dispersed into northeast Africa and the Levant, and gathered in the Middle East shortly before dispersing into the rest of the world, also matching the Biblical account of events between the times when eight people exited an ark and when the entire human population, 70 families strong, gathered at a plain in Shinar to build a tower.

We all know what happened next. God destroyed the tower and scattered the peoples. Numerous global cultures remember this event in legend, and, again, DNA analysis confirms it. Genetic and archaeological evidence demonstrate that, shortly after Noah, humans—in a sudden and rapid exodus—filled the globe. Scientists speculate endlessly as to what led these ancient humans to migrate en masse in this “Great Leap Forward”; the Bible provides the answer. DNA evidence can now detail the movements of these early fathers with some precision.

Interestingly, both genetic and linguistic data reflect a trifold division of humanity about the time that Ham, Shem, and Japheth would have existed, with one group (Ham and his descendants) going west into Africa and east along the coasts into the south Pacific, one group (Japheth) colonizing Europe as well as central and northeast Asia, North America and South America, and the last (Shem) remaining largely in the Middle East.

Archaeological, genetic, and linguistic evidence puts small, ancient original settlements in the Basque area of France, the Australian archipelago, and the Kalahari Desert area of Africa, almost assuredly comprised of the families of the sons and grandsons of Noah. This fact, and evidence of small bands of cousins left along the way, both confirms and provides a mechanism for another Biblical assertion: “These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth” (Genesis 9:19). Reproductive isolation of a small population is the defined method, in genetics, of producing a diversity of physical traits leading to the development of defined races (seen clearly in dog breeding and in the prevalence of rare diseases in inbreeding populations like the Amish.) Noah’s descendants, as 70 families spread out across the whole world, would have (influenced by environmental conditions as well as random genetic factors), over time, exhibited a wide spectrum of distinguishing physical traits.

God’s calling out of the Jewish nation—a distinctly scientific concept in its own right called creating a cohort—has also been genetically confirmed. Y-chromosome studies proved conclusively that Arab and Jewish populations shared a MRCA, who by genetic dating lived about 4000 years ago. In addition, it was demonstrated that although dispersed, Jews had remained obedient to the command to refrain from intermarrying; the authors observed that “the level of divergence among Jewish populations was low despite their high degree of geographical dispersion.”

Y-chromosome analysis has also demonstrated a particular set of markers, called the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CHM), which is distinctly associated with Jewish men who claim genetic descent from Aaron and therefore believed to be that possessed by Aaron himself. Analysis of the genetic data estimates that the original possessor of the CHM lived about 3300 years ago, placing him squarely in the appropriate time period.

Further Y-chromosome studies show that the Jewish peoples were, in fact, globally dispersed, yet retained genetic and national identity to a remarkable degree. Jews from Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa shared almost identical genetic profiles, with only slight differences which nonetheless allow the Diaspora to be traced, showing clear westward movement in both Europe and Northern Africa after 70 A.D. One of the more intriguing applications of Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA testing is its ongoing revelation of the depths of the dispersal, confirming long-held traditions of Jewish origin among certain isolated tribes. The South African Lemba’s claims to Judaic heritage, for example, were largely ignored until genetic profiling finally demonstrated a high prevalence of the CHM among their male members. Numerous similar populations, spread across the globe, have been genetically identified as descendants of Israel as well.

God’s promise to keep His people throughout their exile (and to gather them to Himself before the end times) is also being documented. Genetic analysis has shown that hidden Jews fled the Spanish Edict of Expulsion in 1492 in the crews of Spanish ships bound for the New World and spread their descendants therein, confirmed genetically most recently in long-term Hispanic residents of New Mexico and in the Melungeons, a mystery population in Tennessee who appear to be descendants of the earliest Spanish landings along the east coast, including the vanished colony at Roanoke in the early 1500s. As Jews around the world reclaim their history, genetic confirmation of their heritage is being employed to both confirm their heritage and support their repatriation, creating the ingathering of Jewish exiles predicted by the Bible. We are seeing prophecy fulfilled before our eyes!

As fascinating as the detailed parallel of DNA analysis with the history of the world written in Scripture is, the most significant application of the technology may be yet to come, fulfilling prophetic aspects of the future. Scheduled for June 2007 is what is being billed as “the biggest family reunion of all time, 3000 years in the making!” Organizers aim to gather every male descendant of the Davidic line in Jerusalem for a celebration of all things Mashiach—including mass genetic testing, with the objective of identifying genetic markers specific to the Messianic line. As exciting as providing a genetic way to verify the credentials of the Messiah may be, the possibility looms that the technology could be misapplied. Will a world leader emerge whose (only recently possible) genetic profile can confirm a valid claim to the Davidic throne? Only time will tell. But DNA, the molecule of life, will continue to write the story.

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Wendy Wippel is a former molecular biologist at the CDC, now a medical and science writer and founder (in her dreams) of the new scientific discipline, molecular theology. She resides in Hernando, Mississippi with her husband and two daughters.

http://www.khouse.org/articles/2006/670/

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Excerpts:

Recently, as well, there has been some evidence that mtDNA may mutate at a faster rate than first observed. “Regardless of the cause, evolutionists are most concerned about the effect of a faster mutation rate. For example, researchers have calculated [previously] that ‘mitochondrial Eve’—the woman whose mtDNA was ancestral to that in all living people—lived 100,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa. Using the new clock, she would be a mere 6000 years old.” (Gibbons) p.17
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Agricultural data as well, as the wild ancestors of the seven ‘founder crops’ harvested by the world’s first farmers have all been traced to the region of southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.” (Inman) p.34
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Interestingly, another evidence of Hamitic origin of the Chinese is the tendency, among Hamitic populations, to deify their ancestors. It is hypothesized that Ammon, the supreme Egyptian deity, may reflect the worship of Ham, and Sin is the name of a major Sumerian diety, being (coincidentally?) The Lord of Laws, who created law and justice, as well as the ordainer of laws of heaven and Earth p.46
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The Miao tribe of China, an isolated ancient people in the southwest, trace their lineage back to Adam through Japheth in a an oral sing-song tradition memorized by the whole tribe and sung at every wedding. The Miao family tree begins with “patriarch dirt” though Set-eh and ultimately Nuah- who had three sons, Lo-han, Lo-Shen, and Lo Jahphu. The song goes on to describes eleven family groups of Japheth who reached China, five of whom became the founding families of the Miao. p.53
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The mean geographic distance among the Jewish populations was more than 3000 km (five times that of the Middle Eastern populations and almost twice that of the European). In contrast to all other populations in which genetic distance and geographic distance was linearly correlated, no correlation between genetic distance and geographic distance was observed in Jews. (The genetic distance stayed the same despite geographic distance.)

In fact, Jewish populations , despite dispersion, were less diverged genetically from each other than any other group of populations studied. Despite 1000s of miles and 1000s of years of separation, genetic studies able to confirm Jewish ancestry and common geographic origin. Jewish communites, no matter where they were now located, remained genetically very similar, indicating a common geographic origin.

The retention of a strong genetic and cultural identity over up to 2000 years or more of dispersal hearkens back to the promise made to His people in Jeremiah: the seed of Israel never cease to be a nation before me, forever. The geneticist himself who did this research observed that “ Only the Jewish people maintained an identity for more than 100 generations, with no homeland and under ongoing persecution. MF The single factor that promoted this retention of genetic identity was another finding of this paper: the Jews had a remarkably low rate of intermarriage (admixture) with the surrounding populations. ( A fact confirmed by Karlin et al.)Hammer’s results indicate an admixture rate of only 0.5% per generation –one of the lowest ever observed, a practice forbidden by God in Deuteronomy 7:3 p.56
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After the fall of Jerusalem and Moslem expansion into the middle east, including Israel, Jewry began to be divided into three classes; Ashkenazi (Eastern European) , Sephardim (Spain and Northern Africa), and Middle East ( Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and Israel.) Sefarad,however, the Hebrew word for Spain, has come to include almost all who are not Ashkenazim. The numbers of the Sephardim declined substantially as persecution increased, culminating in 1492 in an edict of expulsion; Portugal followed with its own expulsion edict in 1497. Several hundred thousand Sephardim, ( at that point (0% of the world’s Jewry) are believed to have been forcibly expelled, with many others hidden as practicing Catholics. (www.cryptojews.com)
In contrast, the Ashekanazim flourished in Eastern and then western Europe until the late middle ages, and today 80% of world Jewry is considered to be of Ashekenazi descent (5)

(5) A theory was proposed at one point that indicated that Ashkenazi Jewry represented, not genuine refugees from the destruction of the 2nd temple, but from a mass conversion of the Khazars in Central Asia. Hammer’s study of multiple populations of Jews from Europe, Asia, and Africa showed clearly that the Ashkenazi are largely descendants of the Jews who fled the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, although evidence of Khazar conversion could be detected by a small percentage of Asian genes present in the Ashkenzi.p.59
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It is an underappreciated fact of history that the Jews as a nation has existed as a definable entity for almost 4000 years despite being persecuted and strung across the globe, reassembling in our lifetimes in its ancestral lands . Even the physicist Leon Lederman, when asked if there was anything he considered inexplicable according to natural law, replied, “There is something spooky about the Jews returning to the land of Israel after 2000 years.” (Schroeder, Science of God) p.71
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Note: This report contains some exegetical discussion that is not necessarily endorsed. The main focus of the report is the scientific discoveries in genetics that are used for tracing the migration patterns of the human families around the globe, from ancient to modern times, validating the account of the "Table of Nations" in Genesis chapters 10 and 11.