Sub-Saharan DNA of Modern Jews

Alice C. Linsley

The myth of Jewish racial purity took another hit with the publication of research on the DNA of modern Jews.  The ruler-priests and clans of Abraham and his Horite people intermarried exclusively.  This pattern continued unbroken until the time of Jesus Christ. Jesus' Horite ancestry can be traced using the genealogical data in the Bible. 

With the appearing of the Son of God promised in Genesis 3:15, the unique Horite marriage and ascendency pattern fulfilled its purpose and ceased.  The "Seed" of the "Woman" who would crush the serpent's head, make void the curse and restore Paradise had been born of the people to whom the promise was first made in the well-watered region of Eden. This is called "the Edenic Promise" and it marks the origin of messianic expectation long before a people that can be identified as Jews.

Dr. Harry Ostrer, director of the human genetics program at the New York University School of Medicine, led one of the studies that compared the genetic makeup of Jewish populations from around the world with African populations. Ostrer found that modern Jewish populations have African ancestry. David Reich, associate professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues decided to explore further and found that modern Jews can attribute about 3 to 5 percent of their ancestry to sub-Saharan Africans.

Reich's team estimates that the exchange of genes occurred approximately 72 generations ago (or about 2,000 years). This suggests a flaw in the data since Jews who descend from Abraham would have African roots that are many generations deeper, going back at least 4000 years.

Lawrence Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at Yeshiva University, believes the intermixing may have occurred during the Hellenistic period (c. 320–30 B.C.E.), when Jewish communities were resident in many North African coastal cities, or during the First Temple period (c. 950–600 B.C.E.), when the Israelite kings, including Solomon, had trade relationships with Africa. (Read more about this here.)

The geneological data of Genesis suggest that Schiffman has his facts wrong.  Abraham's Horite caste had its origin in Africa. This is verified by the discovery of the oldest (4000 B.C.) Horite shrine at Nekhen in Sudan. At Nekhen votive instruments were ten times larger than the mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. This is the likely origin of the sun blessings in Hinduism (the Agnihotra morning ritual) and in Judaism (the Birka Hachama, or “Sun Blessing” ritual performed every 28 years).

The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Hor (Horus in Greek) who was called "son" of God. Jesus makes a reference to the Horus myth when speaking about his death and resurrection. He told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to die and when they protested he explained, "Unless a seed fall into the ground and die, it cannot give life." (John 12:24)

The death of Horus was observed in a five-day festival. The first three days were marked by solemnity, as Plutarch noted in Isis and Osiris, 69. This was followed by two days of feasting and rejoicing. Horus' death was commemorated by the sowing of wheat grains. On the third day, the 19th of Athyr, there was a celebration of Horus’ rising to life.

It is no coincidence that Jesus alludes to the ancient Horite myth when describing his passion and resurrection in John 12:24. He is a direct descendant of the Horite ruler-priests lines which exclusively intermarried and he was born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the ruler-priest line of Matthew (Mattai or Mattan). This was the line of Joseph of Hari-mathea, a voting member of the Sanhedrin. He and Nicodemus, another member of the Sanhedrin, buried Jesus’ body.

On his mother's side Jesus was also in the line of ruler-priests who can be traced back to the Nile region. She was Miriam Daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther) Priests of Nathan of Beth Lehem. From the earliest predynastic times, ntjr designated the king among the Kushites. The name Panther or p-ntjr likely meant "God is King."

It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest caste because even those who hated her admit this. Sanhedrin 106a says: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.” It is said that she was so despised that some Jews tried to prevent the Apostles from burying her body.

I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur (Hor) as the "father of Bethlehem." The author of Chronicles knew that Bethlehem was originally a Horite settlement in the heart of Horite territory. The prophets foretold Bethlehem as the birth place of the Son of God.

Joseph's family lived in Nazareth which was the home of the eighteenth division of priests, that of Happizzez (1 Chronicles 24:15). The words happi and ntjr originate in the Nile Valley, as do the names of many of the ruler-priests listed in the genealogies in Luke and Matthew. Melchi, a name that appears twice in Mary's ancestry, means "my image" in Amharic.

Another name for Amaziah who ruled over Judah from 769 to 781 B.C. is Ma'aziah, an Egyptian name. His mother was Jodah who is listed in Luke 3:27. As a member of this priestly family Caiaphas was probably born in the hills south of Bethlehem. This is not Yosef Bar Caiaphas, the Roman appointed high priest who interrogated Jesus. He was likely the paternal grandfather of Miriam, whose ossuary was recently recovered, probably a brother of Yosef. Caiaphas is also spelled Ka-yafa. Ka is the Kushitic word for king and yafa means beautiful.

The evidence contradicts Lawrence Schiffman's suggestion that the African lineage was introduced during the Hellenistic period. The rulers in ancient Israel were Horites, devotes of Horus. They were ethnically Kushites, and as with the Horite priest in Egypt, they worshiped the Divine Triad: Re, whose son was Horus and Hathor-Meri, who brought forth the seed of Re.

Linguistic research has demonstrated that about 30% of the Proto-Semitic roots are cognates to Sub-Saharan (Proto-Bantu) roots. Many of these roots relate to the religious life and worldview of the ancient Kushites and Egyptians and reflect Horite beliefs In his study of the relationship of ancient Egyptian and Bantu languages, Ferg Somo has written:

Proto-Bantu played an active part at the time of the expansion of Proto-Afro-Asiatic speakers in the Rift Valley of East Africa. These Proto-Bantu speakers going through the savannah formed part of the migration to Egypt. The Bantu languages together with other indigenous languages fused together and became embedded to form the Proto-Egyptian language. It is for this reason that the Ancient Egyptian language contains a substantial amount of Proto-Bantu or Bantu roots.

The Bantu languages which Somo studied are spoken in Niger-Benue-Chad water districts and according to Genesis this is where Cain and his brother Seth held territories, having married the daughters of the great ruler Enoch (Nok).

The region near Lake Chad called "Bor-No" (Land of Noah) is the only place on earth that claims to be Noah's homeland. Noah would have lived there between about 2415-2490 B.C. when central Africa and the Sahara experienced a wet period.

Related reading:  Kushite Diversity and Unity; Conversation About Igbo Origins; Nilotic-Kushitic Archetypes; King Tut and the Dispersion of R1b; DNA Studies Confirm Mixed Ancestry of Modern Jews; The Nubian Context of YHWH; The Kushite Marriage Pattern Drove Kushite Expansion Out of Africa